L'Escalier Rouge

Statut

Creation on 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 February 2016 at Théâtre National, Brussels. It has been presented before the new version of Radioscopies.

Présentation

Synopsis : Two individuals try to escape from this world, in which mass surveillance is part of an oppressive machine that carries within it the seed of all totalitarianism, and find a few moments of intimacy and freedom for themselves. The project : Michèle Noiret offers with this performance a simple composition on the dynamic and memorable passage of a couple, whose history we do not know, across time and space as a living act of resistance. L’Escalier Rouge is interested in the almost accidental existence of this couple, rather than their own history, and observes the mechanisms that govern each of their shifts, both in their wariness of external threats and in their irrational letting-go.

…

On the stage, in a single long take mixing tension, humour and derision, we follow the two protagonists on their journey, in a movement that is both danced and incarnate, ensuring a restrained theatricality. L'Escalier Rouge: the potential possibility of escape to another world.

L'Escalier Rouge - 2016

Teaser

Pictures

Press

L’Escalier Rouge presents a couple obviously on the run, in an evacuated building, which they are trying to turn into a refuge. Here the action and the scenery, reduced to the essence, focus the dramatic tension onto the couple in a state of alert — Michèle Noiret and David Drouard — whose dialogue holds the audience spellbound. Forcefully, accurately and in collaboration, this fine duo embodies the contradictions of a couple who do not totally manage to create a place of mutual protection for themselves. Their dance, too, emotionally invested and embodied, takes shape at the heart of a knot of antagonisms between the demonstration of force and fragility, between the solidity of their union and the necessity of their separation, between the wonderful freedom they show and the asphyxiating atmosphere in which they live. Oscillating between anxious checking and liberating relaxation, between the sensuality of the hip action and the incredulity of disillusioned lifts, the choreography shows the way in which the last forces are spent in the battle as the possibilities of escape are exhausted, to this outcome in the form of an impasse that, just like this suspended time, constitutes the end of the piece.»

Florian Gaité, Inferno Magazine

In L’Escalier Rouge, the images projected show Michèle Noiret and her partner who chase one another, first in the aisles of the theatre, then in the wings, finally arriving on stage. The spectator then gives herself over to a to-and-froing between the filmed image and the real-time dance, which run concurrently. (...) This illusion or conjuring trick suggests that the choreographer Michèle Noiret is a magician who likes to play with our senses, fooled but never disillusioned. As such, it is our connection to time, to the times, to the concordance and discordance of time, according to two images at the same time, that she brings into play: she exacerbates the uncertain passage of time.»

Philippe Dewolf, Musiq3-Portail Culture

(...) the dazzling beauty of the film image and the force of movement on the stage are both delightful and troubling; that of these two people overwhelmed (Michèle Noiret and David Drouard), - even damaged by camera surveillance, black and white, omnipotent, omnipresent - in the essay (in development) L’Escalier rouge. (...) L’Escalier rouge is the substance of life that we precipitate outside the frame, within the frame, in a clever game of continuity errors, spatial disorientation and sensorial and cognitive breaks, which it also is. (...) Is the malicious beauty of L’Escalier rouge due both to the plastic effects and the very filmy, dreamy, heady music (Colder, Francisco Lopez, Pierre-Axel Izerable, Todor Todoroff)?»

Sylvia Botella, Rtbf-Portail Culture

For L’Escalier Rouge, a large sheet blocks off half the stage, another the back, a third the wing stage left. Above is a space for projecting a film showing a couple on the run in a deserted building. There are no explanations. The two protagonists (the choreographer and David Drouard, powerful and very much in harmony) enter the stage intermittently for a sensual, troubling dance. These are not concrete accounts of the film (some images are shot live, but out of view), but a type of physical translation of the anxiety shown in the images.»

Philippe Verrièle

Cast & credits

Conception Michèle Noiret
Choreography and interpretation David Drouard, Michèle Noiret
Assistant Florence Augendre
Films Vincent Pinckaers
Films / video technician Benoît Gillet
Original music Todor Todoroff
Additional music Colder "On my mind", Francisco Lopez
Light Xavier Lauwers
Costumes David Drouard, Michèle Noiret
Technical direction Christian Halkin
Light technician Marc Lhommel
Sound technician Pierre-Axel Izerable or Todor Todoroff
Photographies Sergine Laloux
Duration 20 minutes

The Compagnie Michèle Noiret was in residence at Théâtre Louis Aragon, scène conventionnée danse de Tremblay-en-France, within the context of “Territoire(s) de la Danse 2015”, with the support of the Département de la Seine-Saint-Denis.

Production : Compagnie Michèle Noiret / Tandem asbl
Produced with the support of the Ministère de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Service de la Danse.
The Compagnie Michèle Noiret is subsidised by the Ministère de la Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles, Service de la Danse, and receives regular support from Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI).
Michèle Noiret is member of the Royal Academy of Belgium.

Touring

16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th February 2016 Théâtre National - Bruxelles (B)