Domaine public
Amusing, ludicrous and sometimes downright embarrassing, the questions come thick and fast into the ears of spectators equipped with headphones. “Have you ever followed a complete stranger down the street? Have you ever pretended to be drunker than you actually were to avoid having to make love? Have you ever shoplifted something from a store?” Assembled in a public space, the spectators respond with their bodies, obeying strict instructions. “Step forward. Raise your hand. Gaze up at the sky.”
A swaying, ever-changing silent choreography thus takes shape and, like contemporary social networking sites, communities coalesce and fall apart as experiences or personal convictions are shared with others. Liberated from the usual staging “ornaments” (the conventions of character and script), the playful theatre of Catalan director Roger Bernat revives the idea of an invigorating public space, one that generates encounters and rediscovers a Dionysian aspect best summarized as “We don’t know when or how it will all end!”
PRODUCED BY ROGER BERNAT/FFF
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ROGER BERNAT
PHOTOS & TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: TXALO TOLOZA
COSTUME DESIGN: DOMINIQUE BERNAT + BÁRBARA GLAENZEL
DIGITAL SYSTEM: ALEKSEI HESCHT
COPRODUCTION LA MEKANICA / APAP (BARCELONE) + TEATRE LLIURE (BARCELONE) + CENTRO PÁRRAGA (MURCIA) + ELÈCTRICA PRODUCCIONS (BARCELONE)
WITH THE SUPPORT OF GENERALITAT DE CATALUNYA / ENTITAT AUTÒNOMA DE DIFUSIÓ CULTURAL – DEPARTAMENT DE CULTURA I MITJANS DE COMUNICACIÓ + COMMISSION EUROPÉENNE – DIRECTION GÉNÉRALE DE L’ÉDUCATION ET DE LA CULTURE / PROGRAMME CULTURE 2007-2013 + INSTITUT RAMON LLULL (BARCELONE)
REDACTION: CATHERINE CYR
TRADUCTION: NEIL KROETSCH
ROGER BERNAT (BARCELONE)
ROGER BERNAT/FFF
A co-founder with Tomàs Aragay of the General Elèctrica company (1997-2001), where he created some remarkable work, this iconoclastic director has become a key figure in contemporary theatre in Spain and elsewhere, renowned for LA LA LA LA (2004), Tot és perfecte (2005) and Das Paradies Experiment (2007), pieces very much in the spirit of the Oulipo experimental literature movement.
