The enthralling circus adventures of Danielle LE PIERRÈS and Christophe LELARGE’s company have long been part of Tombées de la Nuit. From Tok (2007), to 2 (2010) and Hirisinn (2013), P’TIT CIRK’s technical precision, inventive writing and theatrical poetry have created a unique world that combines performance and wonder, touching gentleness and acrobatics, and clown humour and storytelling. With the company’s latest production, EDEN, which has been on tour since last year, the two artists draw inspiration from Elizabethan theatre (Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare) and the freedom of expression at work in England at the time. In a combination of temporary stage theatre and the stage architecture of the Globe and Blackfriars theatres in London, set designer Guillaume Roudot has constructed a T-shaped stage with riser seating. Actress Évelyne Fagnen (Ariane Mnouchkine, Christophe Rauck) helped with directing.

This proximity to the audience, different to a circus ring, becomes the setting where Danielle LE PIERRÈS and Christophe LELARGE take on the silly faces and red noses of English clowns Crécelle and Zinc, in an unexpected performance of an Apocalypse, and a creation story in the true spirit of Shakespearian outlandishness. Dressed in velvet and lace, with furs and swords, the two last-living clowns in the world, a man and a woman, rehearse a final love scene, filled with kings, queens, tragedy and betrayal. Then, under the shade of a tree, they play Adam and Eve, poking fun at the complexity of love, chasing after each other, assassinating each other, crowning each other.
This poetic cocoon combines clowning and theatre in a chaotic immersion into fantasy and extravagance. EDEN stays true to the traditions of P’TIT CIRK, creating laughter and fun in a thought-provoking, touching and perilous production that will be in Rennes for four performances.