« Déversoir »

Suitable for over 12s

First production - Circus – Contortion

18-24 January 2008

First the father talks, then the brother. A story about a family, incredibly tight relationships, filmed in full frame shots during a trip in the North of Canada. In front of the screen, Angela Laurier contorts herself as if to defeat the words, to finally fight them. Following Filmer (filming), a performance and the first stage of the project*, she now presents Déversoir: the outcome of this long exploration of family intimacy. On the stage, her body seems to mix with then confront the words and images of the father and brother. Angela Laurier let us see the physical and mental obligation to fight that makes her such a great circus artist. Her talented body is used to serve a violently intimate purpose, in the hope of freeing itself. A moment of exceptional sensibility, far beyond the realm of circus, which tells of the weight the family story has on the body and the energy required to wrench oneself away from it and redress the balance. *presented at the Ça Change! WeekEnd in January 2007.

“(…) From fierceness to gracefulness, intimacy to exorcism, performance to delivery, her path went back and forth, twisting the space around her as much as she did her body, as if you had to use, rehearse, reuse, re-rehearse, before you can see above the weight of things the minuscule part played by the self. Angela Laurier says that one day soon her future as a contortionist will evaporate like old clothes and that she will then really be able to talk about her experiences without fearing the onset of madness. She will then be totally free.” Daniel Conrod, in Télérama magazine, January 07, about "Filmer", the first stage of the project).

See the flyer "Ménard / Laurier" (pdf / 200 KB) ! In french!
See press release "Ménard / Laurier" (pdf / 625 KB) !In french!
See synopsis (pdf / 46 KB) !In french!

Where are you at since January 2007 and your presentation of a first stage of the project at Les Subsistances? How do you think you will continue your work in order to create a full-length show?
To continue this project, I now try to fill in the shoes of the women in my family, in order to find myself. To start with, I had to go through the words of my father and brother. Now, I will go through my mother’s words. I filmed her recently in Quebec, she talked to me about childbirth, of everything that I’ve never known, of what I have rejected by not wanting to have my own children. I need to listen to them all, a lot, in order to understand where I was in all that, as if I had been a spectator of my own experience. This show is a way to get in. I had to resume contact with my father; at that stage, I would have either assassinated him or I had to try to understand him. I also wanted to have another type of relationship with my schizophrenic brother.

Are you giving way to women then?
I chose to talk in the first forty minutes about the father-son relationship, the conflict, the pills. The mother’s words will come afterwards, then other images of our trip in the West of Canada, where we had some magical experiences. After several days on the road crossing Canada from East to West, we ended up in our birthplace. I hadn’t been there for thirty-seven years, it was very moving to hear people talk about my father, how he was when was young. He chose to go and live in the woods, to clear the forest, dig wells, bring electricity all the way to places where there was nothing else and where small communities helped each other in the early 50s. I lived there until I was 5 and my brother Dominique was 9.

Is it a trip down memory lane?
I realised I was doing this show to find my place... probably because I didn’t start my own family... and to find my own words, because all of them talk a lot. They are very talkative and I’m the one who doesn’t talk. I am starting to come out of this confused obsession. After that, I thing I will move on. I’ve been wanting to stop for over ten years but I needed to make sense of the fact I became a contortionist first. I hope that from now on, I will manage to do something less extreme because training is still an extremely hard process, even after 25 years. With this project I regained the pleasure I had to train and perform.

Bourdieu said once he spent his whole life trying to “live up to the child he once was”. I often think about this quotation when I see your work, would you agree?
I feel like living up to what we all were, the brothers and sisters, all the siblings. We were very supportive of each other, my father was a hard man. Deep down I was thinking, “even if he is stronger than me, he won’t change me”. My father symbolised terror but he worked hard all his life for us, his nine children, to survive. Often he said that “to have children is to perpetuate poverty”. This everyday violence was our life. He also said I was his favourite, because I was successful. When I was fourteen I already earned a living, I was an artist, I sang. But I always refused this role, I was ashamed. And now, after all these years, I need to understand what happened to us. At the moment, when I think about childhood I think about my sister’s suicide, which I have known about for a short time. She had severed all links with the family for fifteen years, but she was like my twin. She had a twin brother, but we were like the real twins of the family, always in the same bedroom. I was the tough one, I had power over her, I was very physical, she was fragile, vulnerable and very beautiful, always helping mum in the house, looking after the little ones. I was the cheeky one, she was the sweet one.

With this show do you want to fight against the discipline imposed by your father?
Not fight against it no, I think I’m a lot like him. I was scared of this violence, of being like him, but everyone always told me: “you’re just like dad”. Contortion was my way out of violence. I remember, I was a gymnast, I was eighteen when suddenly I decided to do contortion. I had a natural ability but I started to train on my own. After school, I used to go to the gymnasium, I would cry, I couldn’t understand why I was doing that. I was bending myself relentlessly, I only knew one thing: I wanted to do something that no one else did. I was crazy, I was training six times a week. People would come into the gymnasium, I wouldn’t get up to greet them, these moments were sacred for me. Later on, my sisters have held it against me. Through this show I think I resolve the issue of my position, my problem of not having any children. I will film my nephews and nieces. I invited five of them to come to France. And I will film my parents’ fifty years anniversary. For the show, I would like to have a beautiful image at the end with children, life.

Background

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Distribution & Thanks

Dates

Friday 18, Saturday 19, Monday 21, Tuesday 22, Wednesday 23, Thursday 24 January at 9pm (No performance on the 20st)

Duration / 1 hour 10 min

Prices

€10 / €8/ €6
PASS’ 2 SHOWS €16/ €13
PASS’ 3 SHOWS €21 / €15

Social Gatherings

Soupe à la répèt': 10 Jan 08 at 7:30pm
Babel: 22 Jan 08 after the performance

Residence

1st step at the creative WeekEnd April 07,
5-17 Nov 07, 2-24 Jan 08