Je tremble (1 et 2)

An author and director, Joël Pommerat works with the Compagnie Louis Brouillard that he founded in 1990. Along with his team, he creates every aspect of the plays he writes for his actors, persuaded that playwriting does not stop on the first day of rehearsals but, on the contrary, continues through work with the actors, as much as through work on the scenography, lighting and sound. Often described as “theatre of the intimate”, Joël Pommerat's theatre is also a “theatre of the real” deeply embedded in our time. It is pure meticulous craftsmanship in which the gesture's precision matches the words' exactness to create and maintain a constant link between the stage and the audience. Since 1990, through 15 plays – including Des suées (Sweat), Pôles, Treize étroites têtes (Thirteen Narrow Heads), Mon ami (My Friend), Grâce à mes yeux (Thanks to My Eyes) and D'une seule main (With a Single Hand) – Joël Pommerat and his company have been following this path, deepening an original and rigorous approach that, episode after episode, makes up a familiar and mysterious theatre universe, woven of unforgettable images. He presented Au Monde (In the World), Les Marchands (The Merchants) and Le Petit Chaperon rouge (Little Red Riding Hood) at the Festival d'Avignon in 2006.

A genuine “theatre of illusion”, Joël Pommerat's shows marvellously play on light and shadows, natural voices and playback, to study man in his most immediate, most naked, most troubling reality. After the premiere of I tremble (1) in 2007, he is now premiering the second part of this show and undertaking a journey made up of brief moments, brief instants, songs, stories in a world that could be believed devoted to entertainment, that could be that of the cabaret. But in front of and behind the changing red, gold and silver curtain, a ceremonial is built in which sequins and glitter rapidly fade to leave room for the words of those who have come to tell us the truth about their lives. The inventor of theatre anthropology, Jöel Pommerat carries us once again into the entrails of humanity with a host of biographical narrations, real or fantasy, about those we come across, sometimes seeing them but never hearing them: “the woman in bad shape”, “the richest man in the world”, “the man who didn't exist”, “the very pregnant woman”, “the very old woman” and so on. Here, there is no denunciation, no judgement, no morality but contact with the intimate, all the stronger and more disturbing as it is placed in a real-life situation in a world of dreams and illusions. In its fragmentation, this work deeply touches our fascination for the images which have invaded us, beautiful images that conceal a not so beautiful reality, as Joël Pommerat multiples the sequences like a magician or illusionist. Are we seeing a cabaret show, vaudeville, a new form of tragedy? It is unquestionably all that, combined, without any other certainty than saying to oneself that Jöel Pommerat and his remarkable actors allow us to be at the heart of theatre art since we are “in the story without being in the anecdote”.

texte et mise en scène: Joël Pommerat
avec: Saadia Bentaïeb, Agnès Berthon, Hervé Blanc, Lionel Codino, Ruth Olaizola, Marie Piemontese (distribution en cours)
assistant à la mise en scène: Matthieu Roy
scénographie et lumière: Eric Soyer
recherche sonore: Antonin, François et Grégoire Leymarie
recherche thématiques musicales: Arthur Franc
costumes: Isabelle Deffin
secrétariat général: Anne de Amézaga
texte publié aux éditions Actes Sud-Papiers

Je tremble 1 coproduction: Compagnie Louis Brouillard, Espace Malraux Scène nationale de Chambéry et de la Savoie, Centre dramatique national Orléans-Loiret-Centre, Théâtre de Brétigny Scène conventionnée du Val d'Orge, Le Merlan Scène nationale à Marseille, L'Hippodrome Scène nationale de Douai, La Ferme de Bel Ébat Guyancourt, Festival d'Avignon, la CCAS
avec l'aide à la production et à la diffusion du fonds Sacd
Je tremble 2 coproduction: Compagnie Louis Brouillard, Le Grand T à Nantes Scène conventionnée Loire-Atlantique, Théâtre national de Bruxelles, Festival de Liège, Comédie de Caen-Centre dramatique national de Normandie, Centre dramatique national Orléans-Loiret-Centre, Le Merlan Scène nationale à Marseille, CNDC de Châteauvallon, Festival d'Avignon, la CCAS
La Compagnie Louis Brouillard est en résidence auThéâtre Bretigny et au Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord à Paris
Le Festival d'Avignon reçoit le soutien de l'Adami pour la production

© photo Pascal Gely Agence Bernand / CDDS Enguerand