Compagnie Philippe Genty: Forget Me Not. Photo Pascal François

Compagnie Philippe Genty: Forget Me Not

 

Dead or alive? Alive alive-oh!

Compagnie Philippe Genty’s work has always had animation – the giving of life – at its heart. Not only in the sense that animation, in all its many and various theatrical meanings, is the form developed in the art, but also that the work has the investigation of animation, and a philosophical interest in the meaning of what it is to be, or to make something be, ‘alive’ on stage, as its on-going obsession. Never more so than in Forget Me Not (Ne M’Oublie Pas), which has toured the world to great critical and public acclaim since its creation in 1992.

Genty is oft described as a puppet-master or illusionist – he calls himself ‘a catcher of dreams’ and he is keen to point out that his intention is to present and explore inner landscapes, not to interpret dreams. The great dreamscape that is Forget Me Not begins with a lone figure on stage – a female monkey, dressed in purple silk, singing an aria. She seems to be a Prospero-like character, conjuring up all else that appears over the next couple of hours.

And what dreams these are! In one of visual theatre’s most iconic of scenes, an ensemble of a dozen bodies turns out to be half-human, half-mannequin. It doesn’t take too long before we work out that this is what we are seeing, but the moment of realisation is beautiful. From there on in, we are often caught out as the inanimate figure suddenly moves, or the ‘real’ person is flung in a heap on the floor. Genty’s work has been much admired and copied, and it features images that are now a mainstay of physical theatre: the flocking and de-flocking ensemble of bowler-hatted men and women dressed in long white gowns; the mannequin games, featuring humans playing the limp puppet and people dancing with inanimate others; the chairs that are stacked, thrown or used for children’s party games. These are now familiar tropes, but never done better than by Compagnie Philippe Genty.

The show is a wondrous montage of moving pictures, a scenography of the interplay between space, object, light and human body. Each new scene brings fresh visual delights, scale and form played with expertly: tiny shadow figures climb mountains in the distance, limp lengths of cloth leap and soar in the air, a pair of angel wings that almost span the wide stage rise into life. Every image of director Genty’s vision is embodied by the skilful choreography of his partner in life and work, Mary Underwood. It is good to see her take a bow at the end alongside the puppet-master extraordinaire, as although the company bears his name, its success is no doubt due to their longterm artistic partnership. Composer Rene Aubry and sound designer Antony Aubert also need a namecheck: the soundscape is a marvellous collage of composed and curated sound, ranging from opera to jazz via ambient and gentle electronics. In one scene, the sound of a bell tolling is so low as to be almost subliminal – a lovely touch.

In this multi-faceted visual and physical narrative, themes of evolution are touched upon. Where we are placed in our world, how we got here, and where we are going seem to be questions offered. I’m reminded of Darwin’s quote (echoed by William Blake) that ‘man may be an ape, but his brain is on the side of the angels’.

Monkeys trumping humans is a recurring motif: in one of the very few lines of text spoken, a girl murmurs: ‘The monkey ate my hand. The monkey ate my sorrows…’ Other mythologies are present: the primeval story of Adam and Eve and the never-ending battle of the sexes is played upon throughout, men (real life ones as well as mannequins) often appearing as helpless puppets, to be played with and tossed aside. In one scene, men appear as snowballs with heads, bouncing eagerly around the women.

The version of the show presented at London International Mime Festival 2014 is a reworking, created in collaboration with a team of young Norwegian dancers and clowns. The snowy landscapes of Norway, travelling on skis, and indeed snowballs (as above) all feature heavily. Many of these newly devised scenes in the show have a lightweight whimsical quality, which contrasts rather oddly with the darkly surreal humour of the original material. To be honest, it isn’t a winning combination for me – I end up wishing they’d just created a new show from scratch rather than reinterpret a classic – but this was Genty and Underwood’s decision, and they have been fully complicit in and at the heart of this recreation so we have to accept that this is their desire as artists.

We cannot turn the clocks back, and perhaps giving new life to old work is a noble artistic pursuit. It is impossible to see any show by Compagnie Philippe Genty and not come out staggered and delighted by the skill and beauty of the work. Such beautiful images so wonderfully realised. But for me this version of this show lacked a really sound dramaturgy – even dreamscapes need inner logic.

 

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Dorothy Max Prior

About Dorothy Max Prior

Dorothy Max Prior is the editor of Total Theatre Magazine, and is also a performer, writer, dramaturg and choreographer/director working in theatre, dance, installation and outdoor arts. Much of her work is sited in public spaces or in venues other than regular theatres. She also writes essays and stories, some of which are published and some of which languish in bottom drawers – and she teaches drama, dance and creative non-fiction writing. www.dorothymaxprior.com