THE ORPHEUS
COMPLEX
From Ovid to Cocteau, the myth of ORPHEUS, the symbolic
echoes in the story, no matter the interpretation, touch
upon universal truths found in every religion, social
system, psychoanalytical debate or political/material
reality. It is a story old as the creation, an eternal
mystery play that all souls individually live through:
the loss, the sacrifice, that shaking of ourselves in
order to find ourselves. Set in a mindscape of a wasteland,
the Theatre de l’Ange Fou’s adaptation of
ORPHEUS follows the search through the underworld of Orpheus
for his beloved. It is a leap into a personal hell, a
madness where different scenes, coming and going as in
“Alice”, appear as a collage or x-ray of the
mind. It is the journey through the serpentine labyrinth
of love, played out in a ‘Theatre of Operations’,
populated by mythic characters in the guise of family.
From the Furies to the Devil, from the hanged man to the
unknown soldier to the Alienist with many cures, Orpheus
is enamoured and guided through this vaudevillian family
reunion by the lonely shade of Death. It is the Everyman
quest of being by dying through loving.
Created and directed by Steven Wasson and Corinne Soum,
ORPHEUS is both a continuation and development of the
Theatre de l’Ange Fou’s search to mirror
physically on stage the inner world of thought and emotion,
that collage of human existence. To make visible the
invisible.
Touring and Performing: Theater Traume,
Mainz, Germany, August 2004; Festival International
du Mime, Perigueux, France, August 2004; Mimo e Mito,
La Soffitta, ITC Bologna, Italy, April 2005; Pleasance
Theatre, London, April 2005; Mostra SESC de Artes Mediterraneo,
Sao Paulo, August 2005; Westival, Taunton, UK, August
2006.
Company on tour: 13 actors, 2 technicians
THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR
An adaptation of Gogol’s timeless story of power
and corruption set in nineteenth-century Russia.
Steven Wasson and Corinne Soum’s adaptation of
Gogol’s classic story of power, ambition and mistaken
identity. As performed by their international ensemble
of 15 actors, the Theatre de l’Ange Fou, the show
has played to critical and audience acclaim in Edinburgh
(Total Theatre and Stage Award for Acting Excellence
nominations), Israel (British Council tour), the 2003
London International Mime Festival, COS festival in
Reus (Spain) and Ireland.
Touring and Performing: Pleasance
Theatre, London, March 2002; Edinburgh Festival 2002;
Pleasance Theatre, July 31 to August 26, 2002; Israel
Tour, December 2002; Pleasance Theatre, January February
2003; Reus International Mime Festival (Spain) October
2003; Hawk’s well Theatre, Sligo, Ireland, November
2003.
Company on tour: 15 actors, 2 technicians
THE MAN WHO PREFERRED
TO STAND
(l’Homme qui Voulait Rester Debout)
Created in 1991-1992,the first ever reconstruction of
twelve major pieces of Etienne Decroux, covering the
full range of his solo and group productions of the
1930s, to his final pieces created in the 1980s with
Steven Wasson and Corinne Soum. Pieces include The
Meditation, The Trees (Les Arbres), The Carpenter, The
Washerwoman, The Prophet and La Femme
Oiseau. The show was originally funded by the
French Ministry of Culture and commissioned by Movement
Theatre International in Philadelphia where it premiered
in 1992.
Touring and performing: Philadelphia
International Movement Theatre 92 and 93 (USA); Hamburg
International Mime Festival, Berlin Kunst Academie,
(Germany); Teatro Testoni di Bologna, Festival Le Vie
D’Intornno, Bergamo (Italy); London International
Mime Festival 95, Southbank Centre (UK); Festival De
Mime De Perigueux (France); two month run at the Theatre
Le Ranelagh in Paris (France).
Company on tour: 11 actors, 2 technicians
|
