“This is a child story. A story about a child. He has a secret, which he must say nothing about, which he must hide, bury. He must hide, vanish, disappear, evaporate, fade away, dissolve... for a while... This is a childhood story. It is also an enquiry, a quest to find hiding places... to answer a single question: why did the German language disappear from the F. family? Fear... Stille Nacht (silent night)... and silence...”
With both text and music, in a thoughtful and humoristic fashion, Joachim Latarjet and Alexandra Fleischer have created a deeply personal musical show on these family secrets that forge complex relationships with speech and language.
In April 2007, we went to Sambin, a small village in the Loir-Et-Cher area. We went there at the request of René F. He always told us that his childhood, while he was born in 1935, started in 1940 in Sambin. His parents were German, but he won’t see them again until 1945. For five years, he lived at a woman’s place, to whom he pays a solemn tribute this April. All his friends were there. They knew and they didn’t know, it seems… We were all there, listening to his stories, and discovering new ones, as some were buried or untold, often out of modesty… After the ceremony, we wanted to know more so we went to see René F. to ask him about his childhood, the wartime years in the countryside and his mother tongue, the language of love and of the executioner. The language he didn’t want to hear or speak for years. His was a very peculiar journey, and a peculiar story. He also stuttered, which we now know that many children with similar backgrounds suffered from. To speak of what is unspoken, and in between the lines, between the words, French and German, in order to understand why, in spite of this “happy childhood”, there is not one day when René F. doesn’t think about these people who vanished…” Joachim Latarjet
Biography
A musician and trombone player, Joachim Latarjet is also a founding member of Sentimental Bourreau. He has participated in all the productions of this theatre company from 1989 to 2004. He has worked with Michel Deutsch on Imprécations II, IV, 36 and he has composed the soundtrack for Philippe Decouflé’s Solo. He is also an actor who has worked with Jean-Paul Delore and Bruno Boëglin. Hox (the sort version of this show was performed at Les Intranquilles Festival in 2006) is the fourth show co-directed with Alexandra Fleischer and their company, “Oh! Oui", after Du travail bien fait, F. le Fou, l’assassin, Oh! Oui… and Acte V, happy end in November 07.
Alexandra Fleischer is an actor. She has worked on the big screen with Alexis Miansarow, Frédéric Jardin, James Huth, Nicole Garcia, etc. and on stage, with Steve Kalfa, Lucie Nicolas, Nordine Lahlou and Edouard Baer (at the “Grand Mezze”). She has several shows under her belt: Il faut bien se prendre un peu de Bonheur and Noirs Paradis by Rosa Liksom. Hox is the fourth show she has co-directed with Joachim Latarjet after Du travail bien fait, F. le Fou, l’assassin and Oh! Oui….
Alexandre Théry trained in contemporary dance in Barcelona and Paris, specialising in contact improvisation and real time composition. In 2000, he founded the not-for-profit organisation In Situ, focused on real time composition, together with Anne-Catherine Nicoladzé and organises performances in spaces whose primary function is not for theatrical representations, such as Velvet, created in 2000. Since 2001, he has been working in partnership with company IDA Mark Tompkins (“work in progress” from 2001 to 2004 on the different stages of creation at the Théâtre de la Cité Internationale) and has been working in France and abroad as a performer with David Zambrano, Karim Sebbar, Didier Silhol, Frans Polstra, Christophe Haleb, the company Mille Plateaux Associés and has choreographed various shows with Viviana Moin and Carlos Pez.
Cast and crew & thanks
Created by Alexandra Fleischer & Joachim Latarjet. Soundtrack + Directed by Joachim Latarjet. With Alexandra Fleischer, Joachim Latarjet and Alexandre Théry.Video Engineer: Mathilde Bertrandy.Sound Engineer: Nicolas Barrot. Lighting Engineer: Léandre Garcia Lamolla.Administration: Christine Tournecuillert Production: Compagnie Oh! Oui. Co-production & Residence: Les Subsistances / Lyon / France
Dates
Thursday 3, Friday 4, Saturday 5, Sunday 6 april 08