« Migrances » Stage 1

Where is Migrances located in the grand scheme of your work?
Eric Massé: Migrances is the continuation of the work I had done previously on confinement.
I wanted to work on psychiatry, or rather on psychological confinement. In that objective I have formed a group of characters (actors, technicians, etc.) With Migrances, the aim is to think about what could be called ethno-psychiatry, but which as part of our project, is rather a desire to work on the organisation and coexistence of cultures and the mental splits this creates. Yi Ping Yang is a Taiwanese musician who chose to live in France. She is a technically gifted, formidable performer.

How did you develop this project?
We have developed Migrances around the universe of Yi Ping Yang. Her instrument, the kettledrum, as well as her life. Unlike others, Yi Ping Yang chose to migrate not to preserve her physical integrity but her intellectual integrity. For her, migrating was an artistic salvation. In France, a foreign world for her, she could develop a more personal artistic process than in her home country.

What is the aim of this project?
This is the first time I have created a show from scratch. It will be the fruit of two commissions: we have asked Yi Ping Yang to write some music and Dorothée Zumstein to write some texts. The aim is to examine what this migration is and also to continue the work we had started with the writings of Raymond Federman. Federman has written books entirely centred around him but that nonetheless cannot be called autobiographical because the link to reality is so tenuous. The project around Yi Ping Yang is a little bit similar. The foundation for the show is her life, with films, interviews and archives showing a young Taiwanese girl going to school in a miniskirt while reading manga comic books.  A kid who already knows deep down that if she doesn’t migrate, she won’t survive. A girl who knows that it is only by going far away that she will discover her origins. At the start of our work, this made Yi Ping Yang laugh. She said that really, she didn’t have anything to tell. Then she went back to Taiwan and when she came back she was talking tirelessly about that impossible and vital duality.

What role will Yi Ping Yang play in the show?
On stage, Yi Ping Yang will play the kettledrum. And the person who will translate her Chinese text into French will be her character. Because when you are foreign, you are obliged in some way to talk about yourself, to say where you are from, to have a story for your life. And when you tell your story too many times, it becomes void of sense, it’s not you anymore. It becomes the story of your story, it isn’t your story any longer.

What place will Dorothée Zumstein’s writing take?
An important one: Dorothée Zumstein worked on the double background, on what is means to search for your identity while changing your language, your culture and your country. I don’t have the text yet, but it will also revolve a lot around fiction. Because Yi Ping Yang’s culture often deals with fantastical creatures, manga and beliefs. All the actors will work in this structure where the actors’ and musicians’ reality fit into his/her fictional character.

A long adventure

Les Lumas’ artistic exploration continues at Les Subsistances with research and production residences. After three years spent working on prison confinement (with Concertina, a first production in 2004 at Les Subsistances + workshops in prison), Éric Massé is developing his new research on mental confinement. The whole project, called Esprits assiégés (besieged spirits), takes the form of a trilogy: Step 1: Migrances, show/concert on the difficulties of being a migrant; step 2: Rirologie ou le discours des queues rouges, a research on the jester and his place in society; and step 3 Mythomanies urbaines, performances based around madness in an urban environment.

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Background

Rallied up around a project both artistic and political, not lead by a particular ideology or political party, but by social awareness, Compagnie des Lumas aims to defend a view of the theatre and the audience, which it examines through contemporary and classical writings and mise en abyme. In order to create a theatre that has a direct connection with the audience, the company tries to invent a new relationship with the spectators by including them in the creative and thought process.

Yi Ping Yang, a percussionist and composer, is now well known for leading the renewal of creative percussions. She came to France and was soon awarded First Prize from the Music Conservatory of the Boulogne-Billancourt area, and another from the CNSMD in Lyon. She has won many international competitions and has been involved in several projects by Laurent Gaudé and Éric Massé.

A trained English specialist, Dorothée Zumstein translates English, American and Australian literature (Julia Wallis Martin, Megan Chance, etc.) and in parallel writes theatre plays. Her work has been performed in the theatre: Dans Ton dernier Visage, Time Bomb, L’orange était l’unique lumière, Sous le ciel de Quichotte in partnership with Jean-Claude Carrière, Big Blue Eyes (a show directed by Les Gemmes). She has won the competition Journées de Lyon des Auteurs de Théâtre 2006. She is currently working on a new translation of King Lear for Laurent Fréchuret and the CDN in Sartrouville (first production 2007).

Distribution & mentions

Created and directed by: Éric Massé. Written by Dorothée Zumstein. Musical Direction: Marc Chalosse, Yi Ping Yang. Adapted by Catherine Ailloud-Nicolas. Stage Design by Anouk Dell'Aiera. Lighting by David Debrinay. Artistic and technical contributors: Sylvain Reymond. Photographs by Jean-Louis Fernandez, Anouk Dell'Aiera. Performed by Marc Chalosse, Béatrice Chatron, Antoinette Ehrard, Yi Ping Yang. Co-production & Residence: Les Subsistances / Lyon / France. Coproduced by Les Lumas, R.I.T. - Rendez-vous Internationaux de la Timbale, Le Moulin du Roc - Scène nationale de Niort. With the help of: la Scène nationale 61 – Théâtre d'Alençon. Compagnie des Lumas is subsidised by: Ville de Saint-Etienne, Conseil Général de la Loire, Région Rhône-Alpes (convention Triennale) and DRAC Rhône-Alpes.