DV8

JOHN

Archive 2015
Dance
La Villette
decemberdec 9 – 19

© © Kris Rozental ©

Conception and direction, Lloyd Newson
Creative associate, Hannes Langolf
Assistant director and Company manager, David Grewcock
Choreography, Lloyd Newson and the dancers
With Lee Boggess, Gabriel Castillo, Ian Garside, Ermira Goro, Garth Johnson, Hannes Langolf, Sean Marcs, Vivien Wood, Andi Xhuma // Scénographie et costumes, Anna Fleischle
Lighting design, Richard Godin
Sound design, Gareth Fry

In coproduction with the National Theatre of Great Britain ; Biennale de la Danse (Lyon) ; La Villette-Paris ; Théâtre de la Ville-Paris ; Festival d’Automne à Paris ; Dansens Hus Stockholm ; Dansens Hus Oslo ; DV8 Physical Theatre // With support from Grand T, théâtre de Loire-Atlantique ; le lieu unique, Nantes // In partnership with Théâtre de la Ville-Paris ; La Villette-Paris ; Festival d’Automne à Paris // First performed on 5 August 2014 at Festival ImPulsTanz (Vienna)

In association with France Culture

In this latest work from DV8, John, the central character in the piece, “deviates” from the norm very early on in life. On stage, his life goes by like a novel, full of the darkly ordinary details of everyday life: a chaotic upbringing in working classes areas of the north of England, leading to drugs, petty crime and eventually prison. In preparation for the piece, Lloyd Newson, of working-class background himself, interviewed no less than 50 men, who came to talk to him about sex, love and, indirectly, their fractured existences.

Lloyd Newson’s hard-hitting work, at the cross-over between dance and theatre, has made a name for him both in the UK and internationally. This latest show follows on from To Be Straight With You (2007), on the theme of tolerance, and Can We Talk About This? (2011), which took a frank look at the issue of radical Islam. In his work, Lloyd Newson, a former sociology and psychology student, has always opted for a detailed documentary approach as opposed to formalism, and uses physical preparation as a central element in it. John, the last piece in the triptych, goes from the general to the particular, and poses the question of what meaning can be found in one man’s life story.

Using words in movement, Lloyd Newson builds up a portrait which is as close as possible to the real. His actor-dancer performers take on the intonations and movements of real, living people and make them converse with a form of dance that is continually in search of meaning. As hybrid theatre or on-stage docufiction, John provides its anti-hero with a human voice, almost too human, as harsh as it is poignant. It is the truthfulness of this voice which rings out across the stage.

In the same place

La Villette
octoberoct 16 – 19

Sorour Darabi, DEEPDAWN
One Thousand and One Nights

Dance

Sorour Darabi, the Iranian choreographer, who has been living in France since 2013, unveils his first opera, an ambulatory performance which enables voices marginalized by ancient myths to be heard. It is a piece devised by and for committed bodies.
La Villette
novembernov 6 – 8

Carolina Bianchi y Cara de Cavalo
Trilogie Cadela Força – Chapitre I : A Noiva e o Boa Noite Cinderela

Theatre

Like descending into the darkest depths of hell, Carolina Bianchi exposes the unspeakable horror of sexist violence, plunging us into a median space in which all memory becomes blurred. Following in the footsteps of the artist Pippa Bacca, she uses her own body for the purposes of the piece, thereby anchoring herself in the history of feminist performance, and casting a critical gaze upon it at the same time.
La Villette
novembernov 21 - december – dec 21

Théo Mercier
Skinless

Performance

Brought to the stage by visual artist Théo Mercier, Skinless is a disenchanted Eden built on a landscape of rubbish. Amidst this XXL end-of-the-world panorama, an out of the ordinary couple loves and tears each other apart under the watchful eye of a tragic observer.
La Villette
novembernov 28 – 30

Romeo Castellucci, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustav Mahler
Symphonie No. 2 “Résurrection” With the Paris Orchestra

Théâtre musical
Buy tickets

Directed by Romeo Castellucci, Gustav Mahler's Resurrection symphony seems to take on all its tragic grandeur. Masterfully conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Italian director magnifies this monumental work in order bring us a funereal “song of the earth” from which nobody emerges unscathed.
La Villette
decemberdec 12 – 14

Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon
Canine Jaunâtre 3

Dance

Following on from the Portrait dedicated to her by the Autumn Festival two years ago, Marlene Monteiro Freitas hijacks the match: twenty-five virtuoso performers, each wearing the same number 3 vests, throw the score into disarray, measure themselves against the grotesque and warp the game. This show sees the eccentric choreographer passing on to the Lyon Opera Ballet a jousting match of hybrid times, a carnivalesque fresco in which the human, animal and machine have a tendency to merge.