Big Bang
Philippe Quesne – remember that name! Within a short space of time he
has already become one of the favourite performers in international
theatre. This has to do with the highly visual nature of his work, but
also with the humorous way he portrays our species. We will be
presenting two productions in one week: Big Bang and L'Effet de Serge. Two dates to mark on your calendar
As a child, Philippe Quesne spent hours at his vivarium (terrarium) and this has made its mark on the performances he creates. In these works he observes humanity in all its splendour and its awkwardness, against the background of either a small flat (L’Effet de Serge), an empty landscape (La Mélancolie des dragons) or the cosmos (Big Bang). Big Bang is a succession of scenes in which a small group of individuals gives their own evolution theory. A visual epic, poetical and full of fantasy.
Big Bang is the latest production by Philippe Quesne and his Vivarium Studio. It was at the Avignon Festival in 2010. Is mankind heading for an ecological apocalypse? As Wouter Hillaert wrote in rekto:verso, ‘the masterfully banal ‘laboratory theatre’ of the French artist Philippe Quesne shows that this sort of destructive end does not have to be the only outcome’.
‘une formidable poésie visuelle’
Le Soir
‘Melancholie van het zuiverste water … Een aangrijpende meditatie.’
De Morgen
concept, direction, design Philippe Quesne | with Isabelle Angotti, Rodolphe Auté, Yvan Clédat, Jung-Ae Kim, Sylvain Rausa (or Cyril Gomez-Mathieu), Émilien Tessier, César Vayssié, Gaëtan Vourc'h | artistic and technical collaborations Yvan Clédat, Cyril Gomez-Mathieu | music excerpts Aki Onda, J.S Bach, Flowers from the man who shot your cousin, André Prévin, Aphex Twin, Elmer Bernstein, Armando Trovaioli, REQ, Howe Gelb, Purcell… | production Vivarium Studio | co-production La Ménagerie de Verre (Paris), Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Festival d’Avignon, Kunstencentrum Vooruit (Gent), Internationales Sommerfestival Hamburg, Les Spectacles vivants - Centre Pompidou (Paris), Théâtre de l’Agora Scène nationale d’Evry et de l’Essonne, NXTSTP (with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union) : Festival Baltoscandal (Rakvere), Rotterdamse Schouwburg | support Région Ile-de-France and CENTQUATRE | Vivarium Studio is supported by DRAC Île-de-France (French Ministry of Culture) | performances at Kaaitheater supported by Institut français – Ministères des Affaires étrangères et européennes
