JERK
Gisèle Vienne
FRANCE, 2008 | 55min | PARENTAL RATING 18+
©Mathilde Darel
09/3, at 19h
10/3, at 19h
11/3, at 19h
PLACE: Teatro Sérgio Cardoso
The result of a partnership between the American writer Dennis Cooper and the Franco-Austrian director Gisèle Vienne, the solo is an imaginary, strange and dark reconstruction of the crimes committed by serial killer Dean Corll (1939-1973), known as the Candy Man. Helped by teenagers David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley, he tortured, raped and executed more than 20 boys in the city of Houston, Texas, in the mid-1970s. The play, performed by French ventriloquist Jonathan Capdevielle, shows David Brooks serving his life sentence. In the plot created by Cooper, Brooks learned the art of puppetry and in the prison, he presents, for a class of psychology students, a show in which he reconstructs the murders using the puppets. Violent and comical, the show examines the notions between the fantastic and the real and questions what happens when fantasy is truly lived.
Gisèle Vienne is a Franco-Austrian artist, choreographer and director. After graduating in Philosophy, she studied at the puppeteering school École Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette. She works regularly with writer Dennis Cooper, musicians Peter Rehberg and Stephen O’Malley and light designer Patrick Riou, among other artists. Her works move between languages (performing arts, fine arts, cinema) to dissect human relations, the artistic and the religious. Vienne directed and choreographed various works with the collaboration of Dennis Cooper, including I Apologize (2004), Kindertotenlieder (2007), Jerk (2008), This Is How You Will Disappear (2010), The Pyre (2013), The Ventriloquists Convention (2015) e Crowd (2017). She also regularly exhibits her photographs and installations.
CRITICS
Our senses are confused by the horrifying and ridiculous sights before us, of hand puppets in a mix of human and animal forms committing grotesque acts of violence and sex.
The changes in voice and skillful puppetry, between distance and cruelty, make a highly disturbing overlap of sounds and emotions. A surprising multi-instrumentalist, Jonathan Capdevielle incorporates a schizophrenic phenomenon as unreasonable as his subject.
TECHNICAL SHEET
SOLO PERFORMANCE FOR: A PUPPETEER
FROM A NOVEL OF: Dennis Cooper
DIRECTED BY: Gisèle Vienne
DRAMATURGY: Dennis Cooper
MUSIC: Peter Rehberg (original music) and El Mundo Frio of Corrupted
LIGHTS: Patrick Riou
PERFORMED BY AND CREATED IN COLLABORATION WITH: Jonathan Capdevielle
RECORDED VOICES: Dennis Cooper and Paul P
STYLISME: Stephen O’Malley and Jean-Luc Verna
PUPPETS: Gisèle Vienne and Dorothéa Vienne Pollak
MAKEUP: Jean-Luc Verna and Rebecca Flores
COSTUMES: Dorothéa Vienne Polak, Marino Marchand and Babeth Martin
VENTRILOQUISM TEACHING: Michel Dejeneffe
WITH THE TECHNICAL TEAM: of the Quartz – Scène Nationale de Brest
TECHNICAL DIRECTION FOR THE CREATION: Nicolas Minssen
TEXT TRANSLATION FROM AMERICAN TO FRENCH: Emmelene Landon
DRAWINGS: Jean-Luc Verna, Courtesy Air de Paris
THANKS TO: Atelier de Création Radiophonique by France Culture, Philippe Langlois and Franck Smith. For Sophie Bissantz for the sound effects. Voices and sound effects were recorded at the Atelier de Création Radiophonique. Also, for Justin Bartlett, Nayland Blake, Alcinda Carreira-Marin, Florimon, Ludovic Poulet, Anne S – Villa Arson, Thomas Scimeca, Yury Smirnov, Scott Treleaven, the Air gallery in Paris, Tim / IRIS and Jean-Paul Vienne.
PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION: Anne-Lise Gobin, Alix Sarrade, Camille Queval and Andrea Kerr
ADMINISTRATION: Etienne Hunsinger and Giovanna Rua
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: DACM
WITH THE COLLABORATION: of the Quartz – Scène nationale de Brest (Gisèle Vienne associate artist from 2007 to 2011)
CO-PRODUCTION: Le Quartz – Scène Nationale de Brest, Centre Chorégraphique National de Franche-Comté à Belfort dans le Cadre de l’Accueil-Studio and Parraga-Murcia Centre.
