theater  | cabaret | salle modulable | running time 1 hr 20 mn | in American with French supertitles

wednesday 11 april 2012 at 19 h 30
thursday 12 april 2012 at 19 h 30
friday 13 april 2012 at 20 h 30

by Pierre Notte – Valéry Warnotte with the Trap Door Theater de Chicago

Chicago, Atlanta, Washington: Fall 2010, and the American version of Pierre Notte’s piece receives a warm welcome, under the rigourous direction of Valéry Warnotte. This cabaret is an open space, partly a kitchen, the domestic aspect of it twisted into a vague bordello, kitsch and stylised. The Trap Door Theater, directed by Beata Pilch, presents the disastrous figures of a little French family in Moi aussi, je suis Catherine Deneuve (Me too, I am Catherine Deneuve): an overwhelmed mother negociates as well as she can the three identity crises of her children. One cuts herself while singing, another has gone mute, and a third has decided that she is the famous actress Catherine Deneuve. Onstage the action is crazy: energy, high-pitched intensity, absolutely no fear. The actors challenge our perception of themselves. Are they insane, vicious, sick or honestly torn between what they want to be and what they are not? A dozen songs majestically performed and a piano accompany this intimate catastrophe. A regular at La Filature, Valéry Warnotte brings a true dilapidation, a beat-up truth and an improbable realism to the piece, in which the elegance of the goings-on wins out against potential horror.

Thursday 12 April on performance evening
admission free
meet the artists

www.trapdoortheatre.com

clip www.youtube.com

translation David Bradby / assistant to the director Robert Teetsov / sound Sam Lewis / lighting Richard Norwood / set design Ewelina Dobiesz / stage management Barry Branford, Michael Garvay / costumes Nevena Todorovic assisted by Sky Cubacub / musical direction Nicholas Tonozzi / piano Gary Damico / with John Kahara, Beata Pilch, Sadie Rogers, Holly Thomas

Production Trap Door, Theater Chicago / Cie de L’Intervention, Paris. With support from the Étant Donnés Fund – Face / the cultural services of the French Embassy in Chicago and Atlanta / the Association Beaumarchais- SACD / the French Institute of Washington DC. With the collaboration of the Théâtre du Rond-Point, Paris / CulturesFrance / the University of Chicago / the France Chicago Center. Valéry Warnotte is an Associate Artist at La Filature, Scène nationale – Mulhouse.