It was at the Mouffetard, theater of arts and puppetry, close to the Place de la Contrescarpe, that we went to attend a reading of fragments of Buffaloes, a teen-adult show by the Arnica company on a text by the Catalan Pau Miró.
At the end of this very special year 2020, the theaters have not yet reopened their doors to the public but some lucky artists have happily returned to rehearsals. Le Mouffetard made the theatre available to the companies on the dates when they were to perform there, so that the work on the set resumed, so that life could also resume its course a little.
Poetry and puppets are not incompatible
The Arnica company, led by director Emilie Flacher, has included its return to stage work in a reflection on theatrical creation and its necessity. The work of Brecht the purchase of copper in support, Emilie and the actors of Buffaloes (3 men two women, that is to tell you if, with Emilie, parity was respected! ) questioned the relationship between creation and society, the mirror games between theatre and society in the service of the search for a truth to be shared, to be transmitted.
And it is perhaps because spectators are the great absentees of this period that the question of the relationship to the public in theatrical creation and its representation has also arisen. What is its role in a collective understanding? The reading of fragments of Brecht's work and the first act of Buffaloes, where a sibling seeks to explain the disappearance of its youngest member, resonated deeply on this day of the end of residency. Thus, when a fragment of Brecht reminds us of the importance of the place left to the spectator as co-creator of the story, we find the very mechanism of Buffles where each member of this chimerical sibling with a profoundly human destiny seeks to create a story to define himself, first collectively, then in Act 2, personally.
It is also in this respect that the original work on puppets worn at the end of the arm as a prosthesis, an extension of oneself, a constructed identity, on sight since the actors do not hide behind them but on the contrary embody them, give them voice in a narrative between fable and metaphor of their destiny and life, makes even more sense. Everything is visible, exposed and yet distancing from oneself is allowed, as for the spectator and the work.
With the choice of this terribly poignant and poetic show, the Mouffetard theater directed by Isabelle Bertola, offers a rare and precious moment to the spectators, who will be able to find it in a year, we will tell you more about it then. And do not be fooled by your ideas about puppets, you will be surprised and conquered by the approach of the Arnica company which, until then, will continue its creative work and its pedagogical work in the school setting, with shorter forms (three fables).
If you want to see Spring 2021 Buffaloes it will be at the Châtillon Theater (March 9) and the Charleville Mazières Theater (March 21) and this summer at the Avignon Festival.
The Théâtre Mouffetard will resume its programming on January 13 with Presumptions season 1: teenage words for Chinese glove puppets, puppets, viola da gamba and video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELgoVBJJyI0
