Théo Mercier
Skinless
novembernov 21 - december – dec 21
© Erwan Fichou ©
© Erwan Fichou ©
© Erwan Fichou ©
Thursday november 21
20h
Friday november 22
20h
Saturday november 23
18h
Sunday november 24
16h
Saturday november 30
18h
Sunday december 1
16h
Thursday december 5
20h
Friday december 6
20h
Saturday december 7
18h
Sunday december 8
16h
Conception and direction Théo Mercier. Scenography Théo Mercier, Florent Jacob, François Boulet. Artistic and dramaturgical collaboration Florent Jacob. Artistic and choreographic collaboration Anna Chirescu. Performed and created in collaboration with Bruno Senune, Maxime Thébault, Aurélien Vieillard. Sound design Pierre Desprats. Costumes Théo Mercier, Colombe Lauriot Prevost. Props Etienne Marc. Lighting design Théo Mercier, Florent Jacob, François Boulet. Stage management François Boulet, Sara Ruiz Marmolejo. With the collaboration of the TNB technical team. Production and distribution Alma Office – Alix Sarrade. Administration Charlotte Cancé.
Production Good World
Coproduction Théâtre national de Bretagne ; Le Quartz – Scène nationale de Brest ; CNDC Angers as part of the hosting-studio programme – ministère de la Culture ; La Villette ; Le Volcan – Scène nationale du Havre in partnership with le Portique, centre régional d’art contemporain du Havre ; Maison de la culture d’Amiens – Pôle européen de création et de production ; CCN Ballet national de Marseille as part of the hosting-studio programme – ministère de la Culture ; Festival d’Automne à Paris
With the support of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
In collaboration with Paprec
Skinless receives production support from Drac Bretagne - Ministère de la Culture
With the support of Montévidéo, Centre d'Art and of the Ménagerie de verre
Courtesy of a studio at the CND Centre national de la danse
Théo Mercier is an associate artist of the Théâtre national de Bretagne
La Villette and the Festival d'Automne à Paris are co-producers of this show and present it as a co-realisation.
Théo Mercier in Par les temps qui cours.
Listen on France Culture
Théo Mercier in the morning show of France Culture
Listen on France Culture
Théo Mercier in les midis de culture
Listen on France Culture
A conversation with Théo Mercier and Laura Vazquez
On Friday 22 November, following the performance, the visual artist and stage director invites the poet to a free dialogue based on the play Skinless. Unfolding questions inspired by the themes of performance, Florian Gaité organises their exchange and their drifts on the chaos of the world, theatricality and the taste for flesh.
Free subject to prior booking, subject to availability.
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.
“When you think about everything we throw away…” is one of the things we sometimes mumble when the idea of this mass of non-disintegrating waste that humanity generates becomes too much for us. In Skinless, the enormous blocks of compacted rubbish mirror our outrageous habits as consumers as well as the intricacies of our domestic lives. Dressed in latex suits, the bodies of the two dancers push against each other and intertwine on a bed made of used cardboard. Hovering above them, a third, reflective, metallic, figure passes by on their rounds, evoking the spectre of a society in which generalized surveillance prevails. The waste matter becomes the metaphor for all the couple's happy and unhappy memories. In this new work, Théo Mercier brings us a visceral choreography, characterised by a lyricism which is both dark and strangely erotic. The reason is that even if the couple seems to be under surveillance, as if guilty of not bearing children or of their homosexuality, their never-ending nuptial display manages to flourish in the face of the ambient repression and sexual taboos. By exploring the margins, from the garbage dump to queer relationships, Skinless conjures up the image of love as the last place of resistance to all norms.
In the same place