Imagine-toi/Imagine

Water is dripping, footsteps are approaching. It is about to start! Disturbing beeping and rumbling cast an unusual-looking creature onto the stage, a sort of mix between Buster Keaton, Pierrot Lunaire (from Arnold Schoenberg’s melodrama) and a Pinocchio who grew too quickly. An uncommon, gentle and naive character in shorts and a funny hat starts sweeping the scene when he finds himself being watched… On an empty stage, with no tricks, no props. With miming and producing sounds he creates a world of monsters and princesses, a world of tenderness and emotion. If he needs anything, he makes it up. It is a show that addresses what is most beautiful, most magical, most precious in humanity – childhood. In this show, we return to it with enthusiasm.

The performance has been touring all over the world for the last decade and it is the work of Julien Cottereau, a former Cirque du Soleil head of clowns.

Director’s statement:
“I always felt like I was watching Julien’s world through the lock. So I wouldn’t disturb what I was observing. Its ecosystem is fragile. It is filled with songs, sounds, gestures, movements of nameless beauty. I had to approach directing unobtrusively and carefully. I just highlighted the qualities of the friendship that has bound us for over 10 years. We both formed a void with a laugh. We coloured our children’s drawings again with the chalk of dreams. Above all, we were happy to create together. There is nothing on stage, no words. Everything is sketched with gestures and with merciless accuracy of sounds. The scenes take place with background music or in complete silence. All within the framework of the story of an ogre, an oppressed boy, a princess, hungry dogs and crazy monsters. In fact, it is a story of liberation, a confirmation of the child within us. About this little man who hides the big one with his smile and joy.”
Erwan Daouphars, director