Choreographer, director, actor-dancer, director of films, an artist who defies classification, François Verret creates his performances in collaboration with partners from all the arts (actors, dancers, musicians, plastic artists, lighting designers). This results in performances that are of a whole yet unique, that mix genres. In his works he often introduces moving structures or machines that cast the interpreters into atypical situations and mechanisms

After Sans retour presented at the Lille Opera in 2007 (inspired by Moby Dick), he returns with Ice (created in 2008) the unknown masterpiece of the English Romantic Anna Kavan. In the face of an imminent catastrophe – a progressive and radical glaciation of England – Ice puts into play three protagonists: the governor, a woman, and the narrator, who suffers hallucinations and is obsessed by the woman, who in turn is leaving him for the governor.

Cello with rock tones, African chants interpreted a capella, rap, tribal soul or nursery rhymes, the live music is captivating and intoxicating. The lighting and set design reinforce this feeling of inescapable imprisonment.

The powerful dances, the music and the decor work together to draw the spectator into this Kafkaesque world from which it is impossible to look away. Darkness and tension become poetic.

An idea of Graham F Valentine, after a text by Anna Kavan
Stage Direction François Verret
Musical Direction Graham F Valentine, Martin Schütz and Dorothée Munyaneza
Artistic collaboration to the score Alain Mahé et Manu Léonard
Scenography Vincent Gadras
Lights Christian Dubet et Gwendal Malard
Costumes Eve Le Trévedic
in collaboration with Bénédicte Gougeon
Marionette design and filming of images Jean-Marc Ogier
Film editing Rodolphe Dubreuil

With
Mitia Fedotenko
Hanna Hedman
Alessandro Bernadeschi ou Fabrice Lambert
Marta Izquierdo Muñoz
Dorothée Munyaneza
Martin SchützGraham F Valentine
François Verret

François Verret is an artist associated with the T.N.B.
The FV is subsidised by the DRAC Ile de France and the region Ile de Franc.

TUESDAY 30 MARCH

Discussion with François Verret following the performance.