These three roaming, world-wandering actresses are constantly travelling to connect up the world around their trio. It’s as easy as ABC – A for Alice (Fahrenburg), B for Bénédicte (Chevallereau) and C for Cécile (Delhommeau). After asking themselves, “what does it mean to be a woman and an explorer in today’s world?”, they chose to use live performances to get individuals talking. Our lips are sealed on the next instalment of this surprising backpacking theatre. La Grosse Situation will take spectators through the eight past Extra-Ordinary Journeys (for example, the sixth was an incredible walk through the construction site of the A65 motorway between Langon and Pau), while a ninth, original journey will form the heart of the performance.
In the 19th century, French writer, Jules Verne, would read scientific journals to imagine what the world would look like in the future and think up the stories contained in his famous Extraordinary Journeys (Voyages extraordinaires). Alice Fahrenkrug, Bénédicte Chevallereau and Cécile Delhommeau are authors, directors, climbers, botanists, storytellers, occasional singers, everyday DIY enthusiasts and experienced explorers. They continue the pact they made in 2008 to travel the world and blend their different viewpoints.
The three masterminds behind the Bordeaux collective La Grosse Situation have therefore carried out eight unusual journeys, reporting on these unique encounters and experiences. For the first time, they have decided to take a group of volunteers with them for a ninth Extra-Ordinary Journey which will form the heart of this performance.
It will be a great opportunity to tell stories, create friction and ask some universal questions. Should we leave? Should we stay? What are we doing with our lives? Remember – here there is no guide, no logistics organisation – this is no package tour. Each spectator is responsible for their own backpack and equipment. The theatrical adventure can now begin as it strives to bring together these two realities, some “extra” and some “ordinary”.
BIOGRAPHY
Since 2008, the Bordeaux collective La Grosse Situation, comprising Alice Fahrenkrug, Bénédicte Chevallereau and Cécile Delhommeau, has sought to take its situational theatre on a “creative use of the unplanned”, packing people’s inquisitive nature and social issues into their rucksacks. There are stories, private moments, challenges, diversions, game rules, reality and fiction. Past performances include La conserverie de vieux, Sophro-épluchage, Au bord de la mare, Bernache, Témoin, France profonde and the Extra-Ordinary Journeys series. These inventive, sensitive, playful and surprising forms follow Nicolas Bouvier’s maxim – “we think that we make a trip, but in the end it is the trip that makes or breaks us.” Attempted responses to this theme can take the form of a performance, show, book or trip. Depending on the projects and requirements, the collective also includes Clovis Chatelain (actor, builder, technician and acrobat), Césaire Chatelain (actor, technician and acrobat), Laurent Labat (graphic designer and photographer), Thierry Lafollie (sound designer), Christophe Troquereau (popular educator and naturalist), Julie Chaffort (film-maker and artist), Lucie Chabaudie (artistic coordinator), Camille Florent (landscape artist, builder and set designer), Olivier Villanove (storyteller), Anthony Pouliquen (popular educator), Léa Casteig (production manager) and Agnès Rambaud (administration).
DISTRIBUTION
Authors and performers : Alice Fahrenkrug, Bénédicte Chevallereau and Cécile Delhommeau.
PRODUCTION
Coproduction : La Grosse Situation, collectif Créa’Fonds*, Le Strapontin – Scène des Arts de la Parole de Pont Scorff, Le Carré-Les Colonnes – Scène Conventionnée Blanquefort – Saint-Médarden- Jalles, Le Champ de Foire – Saint-André de-Cubzac, Association des Arts de la Parole/Festival Chahuts, iddac (institut de développement artistique et culturel de la Gironde), OARA (Office Artistique de la Région Aquitaine), Derrière le Hublot (Capdenac), Drac Aquitaine. Structure soutenue par la mairie de Bordeaux.
And the support of Conte en Oléron, Eté de Vaour, Maison Jules Verne à Amiens, Le Garage Moderne (Bordeaux).
