Performances and Creations
Being a spectator is not being passive.. As Simone de Beauvoir paraphrased: we are not born an audience, we become one…
Whether at home or outside, we can still be isolated individuals. But in the designated space, whether it’s a theatre, a public square or a living room, we begin to subconsciously integrate into a community, this special collective we call an audience. During a performance, together we react, we are attentive both to the actions on stage and the reactions of the other spectators. We construct and share a powerful, individual, and collective experience.
To choose the artists and/or theme, texts and/or musical accompaniment, the “constraint” of a specific location and its capacity to foster an intimate connection with the sensitivity and interests of the people present is our modus vivendi.
Une journée particulière
Une journée particulière tells the story of loneliness : Antonietta, a devoted wife and mother, and Gabriele, a cultured radio journalist who is also homosexual. They meet during a particular day under the fascist regime of Mussolini, marked by Hitler’s visit to Rome in 1938. The play explores the intimate relationship between these two very different characters, who are each isolated in their own way and subjected to the constraints and social dictates imposed by the fascist regime. In this forced confinement and through their interaction, they discover commonality, unknown spaces of sharing, recognition, grace, and freedom.
Little Amal
In 2021, Good Chance Theatre, the organization behind Au Contraire Productions, produced The Walk in France, Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium. This project featured a 3.80-meter-tall puppet representing a Syrian refugee child, Little Amal, who has become the symbol of refugee children. Our production took Amal through 4 countries and 40 events to raise awareness about the plight of these lonely and often lost children, with the message: “Don’t forget us.”
Les enfants de Chéreau
At the heart of the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers project, which he led from 1982 to 1990, Patrice Chéreau envisioned a school for actors that would be “a permanent workshop,” a laboratory for young talents, a unique space for work and freedom for future actors. The complete opposite of a conservatory or a national school. Chéreau entrusted the direction to his friend Pierre Romans . The school only operated over 2 sessions (1982-84 and 1986-87), but it made its mark in history, especially the second group, many of whom—such as Valéria Bruni-Tedeschi, Marc Citti, Marianne Denicourt, Thibault de Montalembert, and Vincent Perez—later became prominent figures in French theater and cinema.
In April 2024, Les Enfants de Chéreau was staged and read by Marc Citti, with the actor-students of La Belle Troupe from Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, as part of an evening conceived by Christophe Rauck and his teams, based on an initial idea by Valérie Six, in partnership with the “Transmission Chéreau” association and was a huge success.
Au Contraire Productions is considering staging a solo version of this text by Marc Citti for the next season.
La fin du courage
In 2019, Cynthia Fleury-Perkins, philosopher, essayist, and renowned psychoanalyst, met Isabelle Adjani and proposed adapting the theatrical version of her essay La fin du courage (published in 2010 and sold in over 200,000 copies).
Presented for a unique series of performances in 2019, this first stage adaptation was imagined by Nicolas Maury, with Isabelle Adjani and Laure Calamy in the two main roles. A total of seven performances were held, receiving enthusiastic responses from public and the press. The COVID pandemic briefly interrupted the progress, but we couldn’t leave it at that!
THE HERDS
From the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle, THE HERDS is an unprecedented, itinerant, citizen-driven, collaborative, and participatory public art project with both monumental and humanistic geographical ambitions.
In the face of an unprecedented climate emergency, THE HERDS is described, in its intentions, as engaged art. This monumental and immersive public art project, both a celebration and a cry for help, aims to raise awareness by showcasing the beauty and power of nature. Starting in the spring of 2025, this unparalleled theatrical odyssey will feature life-sized puppets of animals—from zebras to large primates, including giraffes—that will travel through 11 countries and 20 cities over more than 20,000 km. A journey that, from the Congo Basin to the Arctic Circle, embodies the migration of wildlife towards the north, in search of more hospitable territories, symbolizing the fight for species survival in a world in crisis.
Gathering
Gathering is a multidisciplinary participatory performance that is partly a stage work and, at the same time, an interactive experience between the artists and the audience. Gathering is written, directed, and designed by the artistic director of YSDT, Samar Haddad King, who chose to work with the Vivaldi version: The Four Seasons by Max Richter, as well as original music (performed live on stage) and her own texts. Inspired by her experience as a Palestinian-American, Gathering tells the fictional story of a besieged village and a woman’s struggle to reconcile her fragmented memories, all within the course of one evening.
Martin Zimmermann
For over 25 years, Swiss choreographer, director, and set designer Martin Zimmermann has been creating a unique artistic universe blending contemporary circus, dance, theatre, and spectacular stage installations. Renowned for his humour, sense of magic, and embrace of the absurd, he crafts strange and singular worlds where everyday objects, removed from their usual context, become dislocated—even absurd.