Off-the-wall theatre

23.24.25.26 april 09

Thursday, Friday 9.30pm / Saturday 7:30pm / Sunday 4.30pm

Have you heard of the Åsa, an ethnic minority in Northern Siberia? Odile Darbelley and Michel Jacquelin have reconstituted a ’’polog’’, a traditional yurt where the outlandish beliefs and myths of these icecap-dwellers and meteor hunters can be performed. For this analysis in vivo of an unknown culture, the two scientists call to famous characters such as twins Aki Anaghkak and Ika Anaghkik, Mona Hurri (art critic of Åsa origin), Inouxouanga (meaning ’’the man who lazes around’’ in Åsa), Jack O’Metty (a music-loving fireman), Judith Pancake (the first polar painter) and Professor Swedenborg (the Swedish emigrant who discovered the Åsa). They also invite us to share an Åsa myth, about Ur Asamlet, a vague ancestor of the Shakespearian Hamlet, for an ethnographic adventure in the land of long polar nights. But is it reality or fiction?

See synopsis (pdf in french/68KB)

’’The Åsa are an ethnic independent minority in Northern Siberia. Around the end of the Upper Paleolithic, the Åsa are thought to have been involved in the great migrations through the Bering Straight, which ended with the arrival of Native Americans in America.

The similarities between a number of Iso rituals and those still practised nowadays by the Åsa are often shown as evidence of the origins of Native Americans. Nowadays, there are only a few small groups of Åsa people left, spread out over the icecap (estimated population: a few hundred people). They are called meteor hunters because they live in areas permanently covered in ice and snow, where any solid object you find can only come from the skies.

Professor Swedenborg, who went looking for the remains of the André expedition (the Professor’s father, General Swedenborg, had helped André to prepare his trip, but the latter disappeared in his attempt to reach the Pole in a hot-air balloon), discovered the Åsa people and studied the consequences of various objects falling from the balloon (peas, bowl, etc.) on the behaviour and the rituals of these locals. He came back from his expedition with a book full of notes (which would have been a classic if it hadn’t been carefully hidden by its author) and the proof that his famous chambermaid Hanna Hurri was of Åsa origin (even though he made her an Inuit for practical reasons). Even today, in some mask processions in the Åsa culture, you can see the image of the Professor.

During the long polar darkness, after the sunset ceremonies, Åsa shamans perform a theatre of shadows in ritual igloos, built with cleverly assembled ice blocks. That is where the story becomes myth, with incredible swiftness. In the tension of this theatre of shadows, between fire and ice, around the shamans, the group’s knowledge is constructed, as only the group, in this particularly hostile environment, allows each person to survive. However, faced with this very present tribe, each Åsa is faced with extreme difficulty as regards his personal identity: personality disorders, confusion of identity, gender, etc. The presence of masks in many ceremonies, in particular burial ceremonies (like the surprising grease masks, as well as door masks, sort of tabernacles for the face or part of the face), is a sign of this quest for identity within the community.

Finally, the Åsa have developed, and this is one of the most unusual characteristics of their culture, a peculiar relation to time. For them, time is space, because the deeper you go into the ice, the more you go back in time, from one generation to the other, towards the beginnings.’’

Michel Jacquelin et Odile Darbelley

The study of Ur Asamlet centres around the notes and drawings of Arthur Beaver, Jean Malaurie, Mona Hurri and Professor Swedenborg. On the other hand, you can see similarities between this Ur Asamlet and visible fragments of Antonin Artaud, Louise Bourgeois, Pierre Dac, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Michaux, Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, etc.

Background

Michel Jacquelin has an ‘Agrégation’ teacher qualification in Visual Arts and has written a thesis on photography. He now has two occupations, as a visual artist and as a photographer for theatre and dance shows (in particular, he has photographed shows by A.Vitez, T.Kantor, P.Bausch, C.Régy, and W.Forsythe and lent his services to many magazines such as Théâtre/Public, La Revue du Théâtre, and Mouvement). He tackled scenography himself for the first time in 1992 (for R. Dubelski, C. Jehanin, M. Guerre, C. Bokhobza, C. Hernandez, X. Marchand and O. Grandville). From 1993 onwards, he creates his own shows/performances in partnership with O. Darbelley.

Odile Darbelley undertook drama training (under Y. Sévasticoglou, A. Vitez, J. Lassale) while at the same time studying at University Paris III (where she graduated with an MA in Literature and a post-graduate degree in Theatre). She co-writes the column entitled ’’Arrêt sur image’’ in the magazine Théâtre/Public. She also regularly practises her music and her dance.

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Cast and crew

Directed by Odile Darbelley & Michel Jacquelin.

With Odile Darbelley, Laetitia Llop, Arnaud Carbonnier, Pierre Clarard, Chicco Gramaglia, Michel Jacquelin, and Dany Kanashiro.

And the Åsa: Kara, Hareballs, Aki Anaghkak and Ika Anaghkik, Ag Kru, etc.

Music by Cyril Hernandez.

Sound by François Weber & Jean-François Thomelin.

Admin: Guy Merlant.

Mentions

Production: Association Arsène, Fondation Professeur Swedenborg pour l’Art Contemporain, Théâtre Garonne, Scène Nationale 61 - Alençon.

Coproduced by Les Subsistances / Lyon / France.

With the help of: A Space for Live Art.

Association Arsène is subsidised by DRAC Île de France.

Price

€5

Duration

1 hr 30 min approx

Residence

20-26 april 09