Toulouse-Lautrec retraces his life marked by the illness that prevented him from enjoying the pleasures of the nobility to which he belonged, in the Albi family home: outdoor games, hunting, parties, etc. The only pastime that made him forget his illness was painting; because of this he decided to leave for Paris to perfect his art. There, he took refuge in the shadows of the artistic and literary bohemian nights, alcohol, brothels, cabarets, café-concerts, circuses and marginal districts to hide his disability.

Shadow theatre

Rod puppet

Adults

Mas i Usó Pasqual

Spain

Villarreal

Printed

Biography

Thoughts on art

Introspective analysis

Painter

Painting

Remembrance

Bohemianism

Infirmity

Illness

Darkness

Night

Disability

Memory

Marginality

Cabaret

Paris

Dramatic

Catalan

Toulouse-Lautrec

Monologue

Projected shadows

Metatheatre

Cabaret act

Off-stage voice

Estratègia per a una ciutat d'ombres

Stratégie pour une ville d'ombres

The text is a disjointed succession of small texts full of imagery that tackle in a humorous and poetic manner the ways in which the human brain functions (neurons, grey matter, cerebral hemisphere, transmission of information to organs) and rationalises human feelings, especially love. The texts mention metaphysical themes such as the universe, death, being, space or time. The fragments can take various forms : scenes from everyday life, small story, poem, dialogue, reflexive monologue, aphorism, songs,... Some poems are in italics and follow a rhythmic or phonetic thread.

Object theatre

Not specified

France

Lyon

Metaphysics

Brain

Love

existence

Language

Lyrical

Philosophical tale

Humorous

Absurd

Patrick Dubost, Ego non sum sed vos amo, Compagnie M.A, 2009.

French

La Mécanique des jours et des peines.

(je n'existe pas mais je vous aime)

Director

Worker

Puppeteer

Philosophical dialogue

Inserting poetry

Song

Slaps

Dialog between a puppet and its puppeteer

Repetition of a word

Argument

Ego non sum sed vos amo

I do not exist but I love you

An old woman who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease is regularly visited by a caretaker. Following the caretaker’s advice, and to delay the consequences of her disease, she records her memories of the objects that surround her on audio cassettes. The audience discovers her story: her childhood in Paris during World War Two, the encounter with the father of her children, her love story with a woman she met in a feminist group in the seventies. The text is structured between daytime, with the recordings and dialogues, and nighttime, when the old woman monologues about the progress of her disease. As the days and nights pass, her state of health deteriorates until she has to be sent to a facility for dependent elderly persons.

Alzheimer

Old age

Homosexuality

Photography

Première(s) fois, éditions Lansman 2012

Old woman

Nursing assistant

Speech-narrative

Recorded voice

Inner dialogue

Rewind

A suitcase is moving on the baggage carousel of an airport, of a supermarket or of an industrial area. It is followed by several objects and goods. As the carousel speeds up, the actors handle the goods frenetically. Their struggle to follow the speed of the machine is reflected in their movements. 
The carousel slows down and the actors use their bare hands to mime imaginary objects - glasses being toasted, or a calabash being carried. Then they exchange various objects: a shotgun, a hammer, a book, an axe, … The carousel stops and the actors bring other objects on stage, which they manipulate or simply put on the floor: a small toy car, trophies, a mannequin’s arm, a fire extinguisher, a heater, a loudspeaker, an umbrella, … At the end of the show, boards with outlines representing members of the audience slowly come nearer to the proscenium until the final curtain comes down.

Performance with raw material

All audiences

Portugal

Porto

Storyboard

Human condition

Labour

Lost object

Industry

Time

Goods

Comical

Igor Gandra, Objeto Encontrado Perdido (Teatro de Ferro, 2015)

Portuguese

Apparition of the puppeteer

Speeding up of time

Silent scene

Avista

Metamorphosis

Music

Objeto Encontrado Perdido

Found Lost Object

A theoretician is giving a lecture on philosophical and artistic concepts inherent to objects and mentioning ancient philosophers and Bauhaus artists, among other people. However, he is constantly interrupted by his assistant sharing information with him, by technical problems or elements that seem out of control: microphones moving in all directions, the light being turned off, objects falling, … In a second part, the conference goes over different works of the company and reveals the creative processes behind the shows and the common thread bringing them together. At the end, the theoretician tries to resume his lecture without success; the technician’s body mysteriously appears on the floor and a phantasmagorical atmosphere spreads. Curtains are brought down several times while the action of the play continues.

Failure

Impossibility to communicate

Animated object

Phantom

Fantastic

Igor Gandra, A revolta dos objetos. Uma conferência animada (Teatro de Ferro, 2021)