FrançaisDomaine public
June 3, 4, 5 & 6 at 7 p.m.
Duration: 1 h 15
In English and French
Outdoor event
Headphone rental mandatory
Amusing, ludicrous and sometimes downright embarrassing, the questions come thick and fast into the ears of spectators equipped with headphones. “Have you ever followed a complete stranger down the street? Have you ever pretended to be drunker than you actually were to avoid having to make love? Have you ever shoplifted something from a store?” Assembled in a public space, the spectators respond with their bodies, obeying strict instructions. “Step forward. Raise your hand. Gaze up at the sky.” A swaying, ever-changing silent choreography thus takes shape and, like contemporary social networking sites, communities coalesce and fall apart as experiences or personal convictions are shared with others. Liberated from the usual staging “ornaments” (the conventions of character and script), the playful theatre of Catalan director Roger Bernat revives the idea of an invigorating public space, one that generates encounters and rediscovers a Dionysian aspect best summarized as “We don’t know when or how it will all end!”
A co-founder with Tomàs Aragay of the General Elèctrica company (1997-2001), where he created some remarkable work, this iconoclastic director has become a key figure in contemporary theatre in Spain and elsewhere, renowned for LA LA LA LA (2004), Tot és perfecte (2005) and Das Paradies Experiment (2007), pieces very much in the spirit of the Oulipo experimental literature movement. In his most recent work, Pura Coincidència (2009), an immersive experience based on Peter Handke’s play Offending the Audience, Bernat lays a trap for spectators by making their presence and unmet expectations the very centre of the piece. It reaffirms his predilection for stimulating an encounter, as seen in Domaine public (2008), a theatre performance where following instructions becomes a shared experience.
« De ce jeu où même la tricherie est prévue et prise à son propre piège, une fiction va surgir petit à petit… dont les spectateurs sont les seuls acteurs. Une expérience originale, amusante et qui laisse des traces plus profondes qu’on pourrait imaginer. »
Anne-Sophie Leurquin, Le Soir, mai 2009
« [Domaine public ] se présente comme un jeu de société géant. En fait, les groupes n’arrêtent pas de fluctuer, en une chorégraphie parfaitement étrange pour les vrais passants qui traversent la place entre amusement et effarement. La force de Bernat est d’éviter manipulation et jeu de rôles, y compris lorsque l’on se retrouve transformé en policier (gilet bleu) sommé de fusiller des prisonniers (gilet orange) ayant passé des «vacances de ski dans les Alpes suisses». [Domaine public] relativise le sentiment d’appartenance, dédramatise les tensions ; on en ressort plus attentif aux autres, et ce n’est pas mal. »
Libération, mai 2009
« Un dialogue s’installe, puissant et rare au théâtre, entre ceux qui construisent la scène : nous. »
Julie Lemaire, Rue Du Théâtre, mai 2009
Produced by Roger Bernat/FFF
Written and Directed by Roger Bernat
Photos & Technical Director: Txalo Toloza
Costume Design: Dominique Bernat + Bárbara Glaenzel
Digital System: Aleksei Hescht
Coproduction La Mekanica / APAP (Barcelone) + Teatre Lliure (Barcelone) + Centro Párraga (Murcia) + Elèctrica Produccions (Barcelone)
With the support of Generalitat de Catalunya / Entitat autònoma de Difusió cultural - Departament de Cultura I Mitjans de Comunicació + Commission européenne – Direction générale de l’éducation et de la Culture / Programme Culture 2007-2013 + Institut Ramon Llull (Barcelone)
Redaction: Catherine Cyr
Traduction: Neil Kroetsch