“To live is to move from one space to another, while trying real hard not to stub one's toes.” A sentence that sums up both the mood and the project of Georges Perec's Species of Spaces, a book that's part essay, part poem, and part autobiography. How does Aurélien Bory, artist of tangents and inclined planes, of weightlessness and verticality, make his this work, whose starting point is but a sheet of paper? Species of Spaces has been the director's companion for a while now. He's always been fascinated by Perec's “typewriters,” those literary devices that allow the writer to lay out the world using only the most basic of signs: the letter. Aurélien Bory replaces the blank page with a bare stage; he uses the tools of the theatre as his alphabet, to reveal their history and potential. He thus pays homage to Georges Perec, by alluding to his work rather than quoting directly from it. An homage to his literary genius, known for its playful dimension, but also to his personal history, influenced by the loss of both his parents during the Second World War. Aurélien Bory creates a moving puzzle, subtly clever, in which interlock creative euphoria, sophomoric freedom, and awareness of an upcoming and unavoidable disaster.
Distribution
Design stage and direction Aurélien Bory
Artistic collaboration Taïcyr Fadel
Set design Pierre Dequivre
Lights Arno Veyrat
Music Joan Cambon
Costumes Sylvie Marcucci
With Guilhem Benoit, Mathieu Desseigne Ravel, Katell Le Brenn, Claire Lefilliâtre, Olivier Martin-Salvan
Production
Production Compagnie 111
Co-production Festival d'Avignon, TNT Théâtre national de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Le Grand T Théâtre de Loire-Atlantique Nantes, Théâtre de l'Archipel Scène nationale de Perpignan, Théâtre de la Ville-Paris, Maison des Arts de Créteil, Parvis Scène nationale de Tarbes Pyrénées
With the support of Adami and Spedidam
Hosted studios and residences at la FabricA du Festival d'Avignon, at TNT Toulouse and at Circa Auch
Espæce is subject to a Pièce (dé)montée, pedagogical file created by Canopé.