Article
'Entremets-entremots' is an exceptional marriage between exquisite gastronomy and theatre. After the success of 'Labyrinth', presented in China in 2010, Serge Noyelle and Marion Coutris present a Franco-Chinese adaptation of their piece.
The innovative structure of this piece breathes extraordinary originality into traditional theatre form. It brings the audience into the piece itself, turning spectators into actors by slipping them into the role of fellow guests. The French and Chinese actors offer a terrific spectacle in Chinese complete with passages translated into French and English.
The piece
Sixty-four guests find themselves around the same table, invited by four hosts. A first glance around reveals a table decorated in a baroque and elegant manner by Christofle and Baccarat. The gastronomic treats are presented on a party table that replaces the stage. Guests and hosts discover and appraise one another–they all find themselves in an unsure position. Together, they will share a dinner of nine original dishes and the wines that accompany them as well as discussions, digressions and recitals that build up as the dinner proceeds.
Little by little and as they please, they will penetrate into a universe in which the senses, speech and the art of gastronomy mingle together. Three extras, attentive and complicit waiters, watch over things, appearing and disappearing in this game of morsels and words whose rules they seem both to understand and know how to break. The proximity binding actors and guests together in this gourmet ritual by turn leads to trouble and jubilation, intimacy and impudence. This is a meal that unfolds in the pleasure of the moment.
This piece, directed by Serge Noyelle, is acted by seven French and Chinese guests who use Chinese, French and English in turn. Beyond the text, spectators are plunged into an extraordinary atmosphere. A printed reading guide enables them to follow the spectacle in the languages they may not be familiar with.
The company
It all begins as if in a play. Serge Noyelle, director and mixed media artist, has created several original shows whose trademarks are a singular visual impression, a non-narrative structure and a predominant and unusual sense of fantasy.
Marion Coutris is an actress conducting a personal research into modern poetry. She uses Noyelle's theatre as a basis upon which to construct a drama at the crossroads of different writing styles–musical, text and oral–and makes the texts that are the company's unique form of creativity.
The pair is a couple who train themselves both on stage and in real life. In this vein, the Atelier Theatre Images founded by Noyelle at the beginning of the 1980s in 2000 became the Theatre Nono and is co-directed by author and actress Coutris.
Theatre Nono is based on the principle of exchange and functions as a permanent stage writing laboratory run by several artists with complementary fields of investigation. Based on poetic reflection and a physical experience of space–and also a sense of surrealism–this is a form of theatre that sees a juxtaposition of different writing forms. Scenography, musical composition, text and dramaturgy combine to make up the tissue of theatrical research that is continually striving for new types of stage spaces, original ways to get the audience involved and radically visual physical universes.
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Organisers
Sofitel, Theatre Nono, Ning Chun Yan Company
With support from
The Embassy of France in China, L'Institut Francais de Chine, French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Baccarat, and Sofitel Asia-Pacific