With sketches, skits and impromptu scenes joyfully combining Keaton and Tati in a balance that is as unstable as it is masterful, for nearly twenty years, Jean-Paul Lefeuvre and Didier André’s circus duo has been standing up for a kind of “slow circus” that is as modest in its finery as it is magnificent in its performances. The most ordinary objects take on a soul, moving as if they were free in the artists’ expert hands. In the rectangular performance space that becomes a pétanque court, a tennis court and a giant billiard table, Parbleu! creates a new life for planks, trowels, pétanque balls and construction site materials. The lanky White Clown in black briefs is like a gymnast in the middle of a burlesque film. The impassive suspender-wearing Auguste uses his ingenuity to make his companion work in his place.

In this understated yet inventive world, the duo is a master in the craft of purity and detail, in appropriating false idleness and deadpan comedy. Over many years and different artistic creations, Lefeuvre and André have used their juggling and acrobatic skill to meticulously craft a unique art of movement and fun that focuses on the essentials of poetry as “the common denominator of all these vain efforts”.