Helene: Instruction

Theater piece with interactive installation, 2010

Text: Véronique Pittolo (Al Dante, 2008)
Dramaturgy and staging: Myriam Marzouki
With Valérie Blanchon and Christophe Brault
Conception and management of scenic device: Samuel Bianchini
Real time 3D image: Xavier Boissarie
3D Modeling: Richard Le Bihan
Captation and sound interaction: Mathieu Chamagne
Engineering / Governance of physical device: Maël Teillant
Lighting: Raphaël De Rosa
Musical composition: Toog
Sound design: Henri Flesh
Construction / state control: Philippe Durlin
Costumes: Laure Maheo
Administration / Production: Vincent Larmet

Production : "Compagnie du dernier soir", in residence at Théâtre du fil de l’eau in Pantin, France with the support of the General Council of Seine Saint-Denis, aid for the production DICREAM (CNC/Ministry of Cuture and Communication) and CiTu (University Paris I and Paris 8).

To download this image in HD (Tiff), click here

Helen: Instructions
Théâtre du Fil de l'eau, Pantin, April 2010.
Photographs: © Samuel Bianchini - ADAGP

Helene: Instruction brings to the stage French poet Veronique Pittolo’s text of the same name, published in 2008 (Al Dante Press). HI begins with Homer’s character, Helen of Troy, described as the “most beautiful woman of the world” in the Iliad and considered to be one of the earliest femmes fatale of history. The performance explores the consistency of this mythological character, and addresses the question of how to embody a myth, and represent an ideal. On stage, two actors investigate the character of Helene and the couple she has formed with her husband, the King Menelaus. Much like a producer and her assistant, or a director and her writer, the actors consider the myriad ways of representing, articulating, and embodying Helene and Menelaus. A mirror of the creative process, with all its doubts, disagreements, and failures, the show is a handbook for how to construct and deconstruct the characters. An original direction, based on the interplay between actors and an interactive setting gives new life to Pittolo’s poetry.

HI tells the story of the impossible quest for a model, with each representation, each incarnation revealing its own bias and powerlessness. A scenic and dramatic poem, the show is also a visual work in which the actors publically implement the modelization of a virtual character desperately looking for a realistic embodiment. Projected on a large screen in the middle of the stage, an avatar, its back to the audience, is progressively constructed and reconstructed according to how actors interpret the text. With their voices, they both create and embody the characters, piece by piece, according to different modes of representation. As the show develops, the screen gradually moves downstage , displaying an increasingly indistinct image, impracticable for the actors. With this technological interplay, HI is a new contemplative experiment, in which the physical presence of the actors confronts the presence of the virtual hero that the poet seeks to embody.

Helen: Instructions
Théâtre du Fil de l'eau, Pantin, April 2010.
Video - 4mn26s - High band request
Editing: Anne Lemarchand

To download this image in HD (Tiff), click here

Helen: Instructions
Théâtre du Fil de l'eau, Pantin, France, April 2010
Screenshots