First production / Circus - Video

25, 26, 27 and 28 MARCH 2010

We remember Angela Laurier’s “shock”. In Déversoir, her previous show, a circus art, contortion, suddenly and physically took over the microphone to fight against mental confinement. Angela Laurier faced, through contortions, videos of her father and of Dominique, her brother suffering from schizophrenia. Angela Laurier is not finished telling her story.

J’aimerais pouvoir rire (I would like to be able to laugh) follows up on her journey into her family history. It tells how these nine children have become adults, each more or less well anchored to life. With dance, contortions, live music, accounts recorded on video or audiotapes, she highlights the connection between her job as an “exhibitionist” and mental frailty, and explores it with a tender, humorous and hopeful touch.

See the synopsis (pdf in french/60kb)

In residence: 5-23 january 2010

+++ “Chantier”: Fri 22 Jan at 7:30pm

’’All of us siblings are carrying the same frailty that points us in that direction, so why did some of us falter?’’ Angela Laurier

’’I came back from San Francisco having lost a lot of weight, I had spent about 2 and a half months over there. I had lost all this weight because I didn’t eat properly. I love the experience, though. But I started to realise that I needed psychiatric help to maintain balance. Living like a bum was not good for my mental health. So, I’ve received counselling for 12 years. I get a shot once a month, and I was never able to do without. Now I’m on State aid, I smoke cigarettes, I drink coffee. I’ve got all the vices of someone on benefits. Now, I’m going to take painting lessons and then...

I hope it’s going to help. But I’m 33 and I don’t really know what I’m going to do... Sometimes I think it’s hard to live, I have a lot of emotional issues. When I get raw emotions, it takes over... I have to take lithium to balance my emotions, my thoughts and that... Now I find it hard to live alone, because I used to live with my wife. I lived with my wife for five years. She wanted to get hitched and all that... It lasted for 5 years, then she cheated on me with another man and she was gone. I met her at the centre and she still has mental health problems and... I’ve got my own.’’

Dominique, 33

Background

Angela Laurier is a circus artist from Quebec. She has trained in acrobatics, contortion, hand to hand balancing, and vertical rope. She has worked with Cirque du Soleil, Cirque du Tonnerre and Cirque Gosh. She has worked with and under Robert Lepage and, for 5 years now, has been working with François Verret. Déversoir was created at Les Subsistances in January 2008. In residence: 5-23 January 2010

Cast and Crew

Written and performed by Angela Laurier.

With the participation of Dominique Laurier.

Directed by Lucie Laurier.

Sound, videos and music by Manuel Pasdelou.

Stage Design and Lighting by Richard Croisé.

Musician and Production Manager: Julien Lefeuvre.

Musician and Stage Assistant: Xavier Besson.

Stage design, costumes and props by Christèle Lefebvre.

Stage Manager: Marion Piry

Produced by Compagnie Angela Laurier.

Coproduction & Residency: Les Subsistances / Lyon / France.

Co-produced by Théâtre National de Chaillot (Paris) / La Verrerie d’Alès en Cévennes, Pôle Cirque Région Languedoc-Roussillon / La Brèche, Centre des Arts du Cirque de Basse-Normandie (Cherbourg) / Le Trident, Scène nationale de Cherbourg-Octeville.

With the support of: DMDTS/Ministère de la Culture, DRAC Basse-Normandie, Conseil Régional de Basse-Normandie, Conseil Général de la Manche, Centre National du Théâtre, support scheme for multidisciplinary productions.

Price

€5

Duration

1h10