Digital Programmes

How do astrophysics come into play in Stellaire?

Romain Bermond: Stellaire ties a love story together with the creation of the universe. Both phenomena embody expansion and movement. When two people meet and live a love story, there’s a form of expansion – the birth of children, or the family history they become part of.

Jean-Baptiste Maillet: We are working with scientists whom we met at the Groningen University in the Netherlands. At the end of one of our Dark Circus performances, a couple – two Indian scientists – told us that our way of performing would be ideal to tell the story of the history of the universe. This idea really struck us, as we’re both fascinated by these questions. We decided to use this idea. This show has a bit more text than Dark Circus did, but it still very much bears our mark in the visual and musical aspects. We use the images that we create to make this love story resonate with physics and astronomical notions – some more complex than others.

How do you represent, for example, time and space with images?

RB: What we can say at this point in the creation process is that we create a parallel between the two stories we’re telling right from the outset. From the beginning of the show, you understand that the universe you see, which is changing and moving, corresponds to the lifespan of an individual and a couple in love. We then continue with this analogy; once it has been established, it no longer needs to be explained or focused on. It is simply a constant throughout the show. The life of the couple tells the story of the universe and vice versa. This permanent metaphor takes on a life of its own.

JBM: After they meet, the female character, who is an astronomer, makes an important discovery. She thus leaves for the other end of the world to participate in various conferences. A sequence on her voyage allows us to look at the notions of distance and time. These two principles only have value in function of their reference point. When a man or a woman without strong family ties goes to Tokyo for two weeks, his or her relationship to time and space remains the same. However, when a strong tie binds an individual to a place, geographic distance and time change meaning: Tokyo becomes very far away, two weeks becomes an eternity, etc. In addition to the conferences where the woman discusses her discovery, the life of this couple, but also of people in general, is a means for us to talk about physics.

Do we get into the story via the male character?

RB: He is an artist. Painter, illustrator, sculptor, he creates comics, cartoons… the multidisciplinary aspect of his work allows us to try many different aesthetic worlds in the piece. We use mise en abyme (ie. a story within a story) constantly in our work, between us manipulating our raw materials on stage and what is actually happening in the story.

It’s never clear if the hands that appear on the screen, which are working to make the story move forward, are those of the man in the story or not. As we said, the woman makes a major astronomical discovery after she meets this man, something opens up in her. And something also opens in him. Their meeting shows an imaginary world to him in which fantasy and sublimation tell their story but in a dream, a fantasy.

JBM: Since he’s an artist, he can make up anything he likes regarding their relationship, depending on his feelings for this woman, and as an echo to what she develops in a very scientific fashion in her conference presentations. When she speaks about gas giants, he imagines superheroes aboard space shuttles, lunar stations and other images from science fiction.

Is the setup the same as usual on stage? What is new visually or musically?

RB: We are starting from the same setup. There will perhaps be some changes in filming and projection, but the two foundational elements – orchestra and drawing table – are still there. Regarding visual techniques, some are completely new, others are new versions of older techniques. We are finding new ways to use them: we are developing an increasingly personal, unique language.

JBM: Musically, the one-man band is still there, but the parts that evoke film music will be recorded using real string and brass instruments. Up to this point, we’ve always used synthesizers. With this return to real instruments, the feelings created are more palpable. We may use a solo cello, a string quartet. With real instruments and real musicians, it feels more alive, more tangible.

For the images, will there also be a lot of material that will be prepared in advance?

RB: For the animation, we are working in the same direction as in Dark Circus. We have increased and diversified the interactions between the animated drawings, partially conceived in advance, and the hands that manipulate them live. There will also be more filmed material in this show. We are using video images that we create in advance and then transform in order to include them in the techniques we use for drawing, drafting, and animating that we use on stage. The way we use sand has also changed a lot, as will our water techniques.

JBM: Yes, an aquarium is part of three of our shows, and we’ll use it again in STK5. In fact, both from a musical and visual perspective, it’s as if we’ve created a tool that continually reveals new possibilities to us. The more we work with it, the more ideas it gives us: the more possibilities it reveals, the more we invent.

RB: Of course, we can’t precisely say at this point what the aesthetic of the show will be, but we both do watercolours, so there will probably be passages using watercolours, perhaps live. It gives an interesting effect to the images, but it is also relevant in the story we are telling, since watercolours bleed and expand, require time to dry, and have to be set aside before you can continue working on them. In addition, we’re working on other moments that will be done in gouache – this is new for us. Gouache is matte and lumpy, which we like. And lastly, paper will be in the foreground: its materiality, its whiteness. That’s our primary tool.

Is the principle still to watch live the creation of a story and the materials used to tell it?

RB: Yes. And to make this work accessible to all audiences. This time, the performance may not be of interest to children, but the show nonetheless has an intergenerational and intercultural character. Intercultural perhaps more so than ever, because of the characters and professions presented in the story.

JBM: We want spectators to leave with knowledge and confirmation from a scientific point of view, in addition to the poetry of the show itself. The links between art and science are clear when you think about their relationship to the unexpected. Many scientific discoveries come from initial errors or unexpected deviations. It’s the same in art. An artist might unexpectedly change directions, depending on the surprises and constraints provided by material or a gesture. Science takes a similar path: the results differ depending on the hypothesis posed at the outset.

RB: The show ends by opening up to the big questions of life, love, the universe.

How technically scientific does the show get?

JBM: We are going to take care that the scientific information be presented such that the vast majority of spectators will understand it. We want wonder and poetry to remain front and centre.

RB: We start on planet Earth and our solar system, and then we travel to neighbouring galaxies. As we move out in space, we periodically evoke technical notions like gravity or space-time. We hope that our audiences will leave the show with answers to their questions about the universe, confirmation of things they already knew, but also questions that will make them want to prolong the experience.

Marion Canelas (April 2018)

Directed and performed by Romain Bermond and Jean-Baptiste Maillet

Scientific collaboration Pratika Dayal and Anupam Mazumder, University of Groningen, Jean Audouze astrophysicist

With participation on film of Randiane Naly and Clément Métayer

Kahina Ouali, Claude Whipple Recorded voices

Frédéric Maurin Artistic Collaborator

Production: Stereoptik

Managment and booking: Les 2 Bureaux, www.les2bureaux.fr

Co-production: Théâtre de la Ville – Paris, La Criée – Théâtre national de Marseille, CDN Tours – Théâtre Olympia, L’Hectare – Territoires vendômois-Vendôme, Romaeuropa Festival, L’Agora – scène nationale d’Evry et de l’Essonne, Le Trident – scène nationale de Cherbourg, L’Echalier de St Agil, Théâtre Jacques Prévert d’Aulnay-sous-Bois, Scène nationale d’Aubusson, Théâtre des 4 saisons de Gradignan

Stereoptik is associated artist at Théâtre de la Ville-Paris and at l’Hectare, Territoires vendômois-Vendôme. Their projects are supported by La Criée, Théâtre national de Marseille and Théâtre Epidaure de Bouloire.

Stereoptik acknowledges financial support from the Ministère de la Culture / DRAC Centre Val de Loire and from Région Centre Val de Loire.