Philippe Nicolle’s merry troop is one of those with a long history of artistic collaboration with Tombées de la Nuit, dating back to 2003 and the first appearance of the “Premier Championnat de France de N’importe Quoi” (literally “first French championships of the absurd”). The company and their side-splitting comedy now hold a special place in the festival and the hearts of Rennes audiences. After last year’s final performances of their ingenious version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in Laillé, the 26000 COUVERTS company is back, like a much-anticipated present under the Christmas tree, for eight exceptional performances of their hilarious IDÉAL CLUB. In the frenzied and inevitably crazy search for the “best music hall ever” and “ultimate cabaret”, the troop cites Deleuze and rushes a flurried series of acts onto the 1950s dance floor, including Rolling Pretzel jugglers, culinary martial arts masters, slipper-wearing acrobats, and cardboard choirs, to name a few. The strict devotion to non-performance is established as a chaotic way of functioning but in the end, the ideal only works in an irreverent and subversive clamour of laughter. Through the wave of zany performances and burlesque inventions, the actors and audience become one, in a hilarious and spectacular Monty Pythonesque mayhem, where off-the-wall yet poetic antics make you wonder if you’re smack in the middle of a Jacques Tati-directed episode of the Muppet Show. Gift-wrapped with 700 seats at the Liberté theatre, the 26 000 COUVERTS company’s completely wacky show is everything you’d expect from a Christmas present.