En
Fr
EsDecember 2023
Plonger
Sarah Devaux / Cie Menteuses [Be]
Theater & circus
Plonger takes place around a pool. At the bottom, sometimes. On a diving board, often In a nocturnal, surreal atmosphere imbued with a great deal of humor, two characters bring this abandoned, almost wasteland swimming pool back to life.
It paints the portrait of an insomniac in a bathing suit and her mischievous partner, who accompanies her on her nocturnal wanderings, alternating between lifeguard, maintenance man and occasional confidant. Between dreams and bursts of life, this duo of intranquillists probes every physical and narrative potential, suspended above the void that calls to them, in that flash of pure present where fear and desire suddenly go together.
Credits
Conception and direction Sarah Devaux Collaboration to the direction Mélissa Von Vépy In the role of the insomniac in a swimming costume Sarah Devaux In the role of the swimming pool caretaker Marcel Vidal Castells Sound design Noée Voisard Light design & technical management Thibault Condy Set design Neil Price, Camille Collin & Charlotte Perrin Costume Camille Collin aidée de Cinzia Derom Dramaturgy advice Yvain Juillard (dans le cadre d’écriture en campagne-Sacd) Text coaching Jérémie Siska Production & administration Myriam Chekhemani – La chouette diffusion Production Cécile Imbernon – La chouette diffusion Booking Siham Berrada & Lova Randrianasolo – La chouette diffusion
The text contains extracts from Eloges du risque by Anne Dufourmantelle, a testimonial by Guillaume Néry, and a lecture by Gilles Deleuze on Spinoza.
Financial supports Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles – Service Général de la Création artistique – Service du Cirque, des Arts forains et des Arts de la Rue, SACD – Soutien à l’écriture Spectacle vivant; Wallonie Bruxelles International, Wallonie Bruxelles Théâtre / Danse, Bourse Ecriture en Campagne – avec le soutien de Latitude50, La Chaufferie-Acte1, la SACD et la SSA, La fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles et de la Loterie Nationale Residencies & coproductions La Maison de la culture de Tournai – La Piste aux Espoirs (Be), Théâtre Varia, Bruxelles (Be), Le Sirque, pôle national cirque de Nexon (Fr87), UP – Circus & Performing Arts, Bruxelles (Be) Residencies Le Château de Monthelon – Atelier international de création artistique (Fr89), Théâtre des Doms, Avignon (Fr84), Cie Happés/Mélissa Von Vépy, Aigues-Vives (Fr30), Théâtre des Franciscains, Béziers (Fr34), Latitude 50, Marchin (Be), Le Columban, Wavre (Be)
“The diving board becomes a veritable metaphor for life, in a surreal atmosphere where time seems distended, far from realism. The pool, mirroring the inner state of our characters, is transformed into a swimming pool or a raging ocean. Somewhere between dance, circus and performance, “Plonger” offers us an emotional, funny and melancholy moment. A genuine philosophical and psychoanalytical reflection on our own vertigo. “
“Blending theater and circus technique, the show directed by Sarah Devaux and Mélissa Von Vépy is a little gem of strangeness, humor and daring. Diving means letting go, jumping into the void, taking risks. (…) And it’s all here in this breathtaking performance on the edge of theater and circus techniques. With the added bonus of a clever set design that lets you imagine anything.”
“Above the diving board, the imagination leaps to life. A few set pieces and a few pieces of equipment are enough to tell the whole story, from the pool to the ocean, a diving board, shrimp nets to catch dreams, a plastic sheet to hold back the monsters of the abyss and a little arm oil to make the rising tide swell”.
The company
Menteuses [Be]
Menteuses is a Belgian company working in the field of performing arts. It was founded in 2015 by Sarah Devaux and Célia Casagrande-Pouchet after graduating from ESAC (École Supérieure des Arts du Cirque de Bruxelles), to produce their first work, À Nos Fantômes, in 2018. Today, Cie Menteuses supports Sarah’s artistic projects.
Sarah Devaux
“My professional practice began with rope work (ESAC 2011–2014). Today, I prefer to speak of suspension practice (a term introduced by Chloé Moglia) and of a relationship to verticality. I am looking for something beyond the physical practice itself, something that can enter into dialogue with metaphysical and philosophical concepts. In this sense, I have developed a very valuable ongoing collaboration with Mélissa Von Vépy across various projects. Together, we explore and deepen a research into the dramaturgy of the body through a metaphorical language and a singular, physically grounded theatrical universe, where scenography carries meaning and opens up new paths of research around the verticality and suspension that are at the heart of our practice.
Today, my work is becoming increasingly hybrid, and increasingly close to the ground. My encounter with Nadia Vadori-Gauthier marked a turning point in my practice. In 2023, I trained in her dance and performance method, Corps Sismographe®, and today I devote my artistic practice to different media that I refer to as physico-poetic. The body remains central and is still the raw material of my research, but within broader modes of activity: a physical, theatrical, imaginary, thinking, still, dancing, speaking body…
At the same time, I have immersed myself in writing, opening up a space for autofiction, thought and poetry, and I seek to bring these different media into dialogue with philosophical concepts in order to set a research dynamic in motion. Today, the question that drives me most is the search for a particular relationship to the present—one that involves taking a risk with oneself in real time, through relationship, instant composition and live writing, and that can unfold within a performative framework.”
Alongside her own creations, Sarah collaborates with various directors and choreographers, working across a broad and hybrid spectrum encompassing circus, theatre and dance (Valérie Dubourg, Damien Droin – Cie Hors Surface, Camille Châtelain – Cie L’Indécente, Mélissa Von Vépy, Pascal Crochet, Sébastien Barberon).
