Yes, we are Puritans; no more, no less than those who represent or embody them for us; we do more than recognize ourselves in them
Cassandra | Alexander Wong | Scenic Art and Dirty Linen
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CASSANDRE

SCENIC ART AND DIRTY LINEN

The Puritans by David Noir and The Cabaret of the Mutant Nymphs by Élodie Abd El Kader and Romain Apelbaum were jointly programmed by the Lavoir Moderne Parisien in March-April 2000. A revival of Les Puritains is planned at the same venue.

These two shows respond to the same spirit: that of entertaining frankly, directly, popularly, sympathetically, coarsely, licentiously, with the energy of the jester, the trainer, the rock singer, the cabaret singer, the storyteller. To entertain here is not to bore the regulars of the "plays" who come to seek a little warmth from a few dynamic actors. To entertain is to take the audience away or transport them elsewhere; it is to make the stage as well as the theatre inadequate, unsuitable - one does not entertain by enclosing, by installing. The mutation or metamorphosis of Élodie Abd El Kader and Romain Apelbaum's Nymphs, the intimate and literary exposure of David Noir's Puritans call for an imaginary or unconscious space without limits, a common space that does not leave the spectator out of the loop. The nymphs' journey of initiation, the Puritans' sexual problems, are indeed about us. Yes, we are Puritans; no more, no less than those who represent them or embody them for us; we do more than recognise ourselves in them; we support ourselves as such. The actor is not our double or our reflection, the one who will make us aware of our situation, the mirror, finally cleaned of our blemishes; he teaches us nothing; we already knew everything about what was going to be said.
What is the point of this false provocation, this questioning of ourselves by those who play at imitating us? Nothing. In the space shared by these two shows, for those who play as well as for those who watch, everything is said; neither messages nor gestures refer to an elsewhere of what is already there. Entertainment, by transporting us into a public and open space, does not distract us from our condition as mortal and sexual men.
This is something that deserves to be pursued and deepened: a gratuitous attack - without didactic intention - on what is called the public, an attack on a community of men who would no longer go to the theatre to lock up their pleasures and pains. What is being questioned is the architectural conception of theatres that we inherit from an intimate, cloistered and egotistical 19th century. There are not those who come to see and those who do not. A theatre is a transparent place, offered, that we should frequent without apprehension, without the worry of spending too much on something that may not be worth it. Trying on a show like trying on a piece of clothing, taking it or leaving it, being tempted: this is the low, vulgar language that suits what we mean.
By challenging us, insulting us, disturbing us, entertaining us, converting our apathy into good humour, awakening our interest in the flesh, David Noir's puritans and Elodie Abd el Kader and Romain Apelbaum's nymphs succeed in dialoguing with us, in ensuring that we are not just voyeurs who come out of the ordeal or the confidence of our impulses unscathed. For a moment we have the impression that we belong to the same world, that we too, poor spectators, can metamorphose into a nymph or break the taboos of our puritanism. All of this is only possible through contact, intrusion and transgression on the part of the actors in the public space. It is in this confusion of conventional limits that something is at stake. It is not necessary for the actor to act from inside the room or for the spectator to be drawn onto the stage for the confusion to take place. It is all in the intention, the orientation of words, gestures and looks: we are addressed, we are summoned; we are the privileged interlocutors, the subject of a play that tells nothing, that has no story - no beginning and no end -, that is not turned in on itself, that was not made for posterity.
At the centre of these two entertainments is an expansive, lyrical, eruptive, convincing poetic writing - felt or sensed. Rehabilitation of a theatrical poetry that does not seek its references in a venerable past. David Noir, more than Élodie Abd El Kader and Romain Apelbaum, has taken up the challenge of basing his staging on his words, his images, his verbal cues, entertainment at the service of poetry.

Alexandre Wong CASSANDRE JUNE - JULY - AUGUST 2000

David Noir

David Noir, performer, actor, author, director, singer, visual artist, video maker, sound designer, teacher... carries his polymorphous nudity and his costumed childhood under the eyes and ears of anyone who wants to see and hear.

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