“Duo for a Wall”
By Claude Pelopidas
Saturday the 6th of June, 2009, at 9:00 PM
Arabahmet Cultural Centre , Nicosia
www.ainsidesuite.com
About Us:
From putting on“The Wedding” by Chekov, to “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams, even “A Special Day” by Ettore Scola, and “Death and the Maiden”, by Ariel Dorfman- the company Ainsi de Suite, in over ten countries, has succeeded in finding a regular audience, made up of a diverse population, by its style of staging- original work on the lighting and sound, as well as on the acting, responds to cinematic conventions.
Created in 1993, Ainsi de Suite occupies one of the prettiest sites in Aix-en-Provence, the town house of Maynier of Oppède, which also houses the Institute of French Studies for foreign students, as well as being one of the stages for the International Festival of Lyric Art. 160 students, representing about 10 nationalities, take theater classes here each year.
Claude Pelopidas -------------- Actor and mise en scène
Sophie Durteste ------------------ Interpretation and alto
Vincent Delpech --------------------------- Sound design and reportage
Jean-Louis Alessandra--------------------- Light and design
Maya Collombon -------------------------- Video design
Alexandra Novosseloff et Franck Neisse Photography
Argyro Tomazou------------------------- Event Organizer
Joël Rumello------------------------------- Reportage
The Work:
The Character:
“Duo for a Wall” was born out of the story of a character who brings us into a world where words have given over their place to sounds. Everything that he touches becomes what he is. He plays violin with an antenna in the guise of an archer, soothes himself with the sounds of the ocean, listening to his glass, makes a lion that he tames in an arena out of his radio. He is alone, but ends up making a duet, between himself and his dreams.
In “Duo for a Wall”, this character invites us, at last, to leave our metro station, to find ourselves in the great day- in front of, or against a wall on which he draws the reverberating craziness of his latest written work, reluctantly written on a too-grey partition of a concrete wall. His universe against a wall certainly promises some fragments of life, tagged forever in the conscience of “troublemakers”. Even one more time, even millions of kilometers away, and in the original version, this story already resembles, again and always, their own…and our own.
Summary:
This story begins with a dream projected onto a wall. From the deepest part of his sleep, the dreamer finds himself in 20,000 elevated places on Earth, there where the most imposing ramparts have the allure of ridiculous fences. Upon waking up, he finds himself at the base of a wall, which is incontrovertible, incomprehensible, and hurtful. What can he do? Must he pretend to ignore it, or choose to strike it, bang against it, hurt himself against it, and die? What if he played with it, laughed, and at the summit of his impotence makes it sing, speak, and dance? If he makes the most of it by defying his shadow that leans on the rock, in a tennis match, or if the sound of the ball eventually finishes by sounding like a shell, finally succeeded by a burst of…laughter. If, like with a balloon, he plays with this chase who encircles him when he approaches too closely. Et if, at each gesture, he lets happen the unattended, whether auditory or visual, by the simple power of a man inviting us to share his universe? But can we tame a pile of concrete? Isn’t it necessary to envisage the passage and the meeting, finally on the other side of the wall, and maybe on the other side of other people? Thus, he finishes by crossing the impassable to discover it.
Press:
“Ainsi de Suite offers theater which makes us rediscover life, by the dream, the derision, and the comedy.”
-The newspaper of the Alliance Française of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
“They make us laugh, move us, distract us, and force us to reflect. And by their staging, economic in words but not in gesture, they introduce a subtle equilibrium in the heart of the piece between comedy and drama, between the banal and the tragic…a moment of pure poetry.”
F.M. Le Marseillaise
“Between drama and comedy, the performance unfurls, without artifice, but with justice… a tender duo for a poetic furor…To see.”
J.D, La Provence
“In these times of closing off, of institutionalization, of segregation, this play comes at just the right time. It is at once an invitation to reflect, to a reverie, but equally to engagement. In our world of today, the imperialist and colonial, walls, the nationalistic confinements, the social, economic, and political barriers form an army. Europe builds its citadel, the United States their barrier, the separations between cultures and religions are established scientifically, despotic regimes restrict and lock up people. Faced with all this, this play convinces us to think beyond simply the materiality of the wall in our own heads… Knowledge is perhaps already a mark of hope.”
Attariq Aljadid, a Tunisian newspaper
THE PARTNERS
l Le CREJMO (Larnaca)
l
l Centre Culturel Français de Nicosie (Chypre)
www.cccl.org.cy
l Avocats sans Frontières (France)
www.avocatssansfrontieres-france.org