Cabaret, generally speaking, is a fantasized vision carried by a certain collective memory, and its history is much more complex and at the same time simpler than one might think… it is the notion of “artistic cabaret” that is at the heart of our research and it turns out that there is not just one way of doing cabaret, but several… that it is not just one artistic discipline but a multitude that has nourished its history and still nourishes it. That it is a place and a genre. That it is the only space capable of bringing together so much social mix. That it is political as well as poetic. That underneath its entertainment appearances, it is a true artistic and satirical weapon, and that it is often the last refuge for freedom of speech.

The Cabaret is the god Proteus of the performing arts, it wears many faces, it is undisciplined and really doesn’t know how to be wise…, it loves exuberance and delights in laughter and tragedy! But it is demanding, and in the midst of his audience, which is the heart of its existence, nothing is forgiven it if it goes too far or if it is bad.

Disciplines

Based on this definition of cabaret, we are going to undertake with the group, an artistic work that will not be limited to musical performance. It will be a matter of exploring the different forms of expression of cabaret and its particular relationship to the stage and the audience. We will work on the capacity of the body to transform itself in its entirety and to play with other identities.  From there we will choose to orient the work towards a musical, theatrical and choreographic form, or to use circus and puppetry. To begin this research, each person will call upon his or her own experience of the show, and from there will develop a new form of interpretation and representation.

Travesty and Metamorphosis

The exercise of cross-dressing and metamorphosis of the performer is an important step. This is how one will speak about character and he will not limit himself to play only on appearance or aesthetics. The cabaret character will express the complexity of the emotions coming from near or far from each person’s personal history. Beyond the question of genre and the metamorphosis that creates the disorder, it is the personality of the performer that will serve as the basis for the creation of this authentic creature, which is born from the desire to realize a completely personal dream or fantasy and render it on the stage spectacularly.

Steps of the work

In the first stage, which will be that of exploration, we will test several individual and collective materials in order to define a starting point, a base on which the participants wish to work and express themselves.

In a second phase, based on this experience, we will work in detail on the proposals of each of the performers in order to stage a piece made up of single or multiple acts, a multidisciplinary cabaret that is inventive and strong in creativity.

Popular painting (shit with sad speeches)

It is a theater workshop for dancers that Jonathan Capdevielle and Jonathan Drillet propose for Camping, taking as the object of study a collection of erotic poems by Paul Verlaine. Defending the multiform and broad love, thanks to a writing of the bodies which details as closely as possible the flesh, the movements and the positions, these poems will be used as a basis for collective or individual improvisations, and for the construction of a living painting inside which the multitude of voices will express themselves through the movement or the immobility of the bodies. It will be a question of making poetry, speech, and word emerge from the bodies by using vocal techniques and body/voice dissociation. 

COME ON, CAIUS!

Jonathan Capdevielle and Jonathan Drillet address the question of the adaptation and staging of a plural work in the theater, taking Camus’ work, and in particular Caligula (1938), as a starting point.

Dance, music, singing, puppetry and the visual arts are disciplines that allow us to freely explore deep questions related to a dialogue text or a story. Caligula’s subjects or themes serve as a first step in group and individual work: with the participants we set up different multidisciplinary improvisation workshops in order to develop each person’s imagination. Everything is welcome: film or journalistic sources, imitation, ventriloquism, performance and happening influences… We also work around the techniques of dissociation of body and voice in order to multiply the different spaces of representation of the text, allowing the word to detach itself from the body in a disturbing way.

We set up a kind of actor’s training, or dramaturgic workshop, hoping to develop on stage a type of instinctive play and create other personal forms of writing.

To do this, we will first move away from the original work, giving free rein to the work of the actors and actresses, and we will then return to the “intact” text of Caligula, based on the previous explorations.

“How do you approach the sensitive subject of your personal history? And in what form does it reveal itself and evolve on the set? During these ten days, we will work on the vast subject of auto-fiction. Initially, we will try to define which form suits each writer-performer who makes up the group. In order to do this, each participant will be asked to write a work of writing. Then, theater, music or dance will be used as a support for the assembly of a first scenic proposal exploring what constitutes our identity.

Real, fantasized, or distorted, the memories will take shape in a very personal way on stage. They may be memories that have marked childhood or adolescence, or they may be a monologue or dialogue that you particularly like and that also tells you about yourself.

There is a certain nostalgia in the idea of exploring one’s past, whether it be personal stories, films, songs, it doesn’t matter: the most important thing is to find the appropriate tools to revisit and reinterpret what constitutes an individual’s identity in all its forms.

We will also address the dissociation between body and voice by working on two scores, for example that of a body, a figure that is immobile or in movement, and that of the voice or voices that stand out significantly from it. The voice in the form of imitation, singing, as well as the disguise will be used for the metamorphosis of the performers on stage. »

Jonathan Capdevielle

How to approach the sensitive subject of personal history. And in what form can it reveal itself and evolve on the set? During these three weekends, the aim was to work on the vast subject of self-fiction.

First of all we tried to define which form suits each writer-performer. In this sense, each participant was asked to write a work of writing. Theater, music and dance were then used as a support for a presentation at the end of the workshop.

Real, fantasized, or distorted memories take shape in a very personal way on the stage. For example, they can be memories that have marked childhood or adolescence. Basically, there is a certain nostalgia in the idea of exploring one’s past. Whether it’s personal stories, films, songs, whatever, the most important thing is to find the appropriate tools to revisit and reinterpret what has marked us, our identity in all its forms.