Underground utopias as grand visual theater: Philippe Quesne creates a Plato’s Cave for the 21st-century with seven philosophical artist-moles.
Philippe Quesne, the French master of bizarre and fantastical visual theater, is among Europe’s most successful theater directors. As successor to Patrice Chérau as the artistic director of Paris’ Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, he has turned the theater into a hotspot for new theatrical forms and opened it to the visual arts. And his own works are shown on all of the world’s great stages. Quesne is also a regular guest at Kampnagel, most recently at the last Summer Festival. We are now showing his new play, THE NIGHT OF THE MOLES, which premiered at Brussels’ Kunstenfestival, for a simple reason: It is a ravishing theatrical creation! In it, seven moles populate a large set and are using no words, but lots of music, color and theatrical tricks to tell a grand parable about human existence. Birth, love, death and art – Quesne stages the entire life of the (human) mole as grand visual theater with subtle humor and the affectionate use of theatrical fog: Plato’s Cave for the 21st-century with seven philosophical artist-moles. In addition to the entertaining primetime version, shorter afternoon performances will take place for wideeyed young people. And the seven moles will take part in a parade in Hamburg’s city center before the premiere. And we’ll present the moles very own truck in the Vorhalle exhibition space (CAVELAND TRUCK: Thursday august 17 - Saturaday august 19 from 6 p.m.)
Evening Sheet (PDF) available for download here.
Production by Nanterre-Amandiers – centre dramatique national with support by Fondation d’entreprise Hermès im Rahmen des Programmes „New Settings“. Co-production steirischer herbst, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, La Filature – Scène nationale, Mulhouse, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Théâtre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine, Kaaitheater, Centre d’art Le Parvis à Tarbes co-presntation NXTSTP. Supported by culture program of European Union and the French Institute in Paris. Generalsponsor Legero Schuhfabrik | con-tempus.eu Technical sponsor AVL Cultural Foundation.
Hamburg Performancea supported by Institut français and the French Ministry of Culture and Communication / DGCA and as part of “Frankfurt auf Französisch” – Guest of Honor France at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2017.
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