The origin of the trilogy, which premièred at the 2021 Avignon Festival, was the invitation Phia Ménard (head of the Compagnie Non Nova) received to participate in the 14th Documenta de Kassel (2017). The artist travelled to the German city and to Athens to find in one and the other the origins of a monstrous Europe, on the one hand, and a romantic reflection of a mythologised Europe, on the other. From there, she conceived a series of performances that take the form of different mythological stories or fairy tales in which she alludes to the construction and deconstruction of the European continent. The first of these performances, Maison Mère, "Mother House", shows us a goddess building Humanity's first house. You'll see her erect a cardboard building reminiscent of the Parthenon (perhaps a "Carthenon"), an edifice as precarious as the houses of the Thatcher-era working poor and that could disappear with no more than a heavy downpour. The second performance, Temple Père or "Father Temple", refers to the submission of men and women to the system, bringing an ultra-liberalism to the stage that she identifies with the patriarchy. She represents this with the symbolic erection of a large Tower of Babel, a seemingly interminable phallic construction, as part of a choreographic and architectural ritual with a hint of industrialism. Finally, the third performance, La Rencontre Interdite, something like "the forbidden encounter", takes place in a desert. It's the story of an anticipated disappearance that is both a farewell to innocence and a cry for revolution. It contains an image of transformation symbolised by Phia Ménard herself, who, completely nude, shows a body that years ago was masculine and today is feminine, alluding with her own personal experience to a Europe that rebuilds herself. The symbolic construction, destruction, and reconstruction of an entire continent on the stage makes for a daring spectacle that has its audience laughing, gripping their armrests in distress, and being swept away by sadness.
It is the vision of the myths of Europe and its current reality that is presented by Cie Non Nova, a group formed in 1998 by Phia Ménard not so much to invent anything but rather to see the world around us with a fresh perspective. In this task, Ménard, trained in modern dance, mime, theatre, and jugglery, and the group's co-director Claire Massonnet, worked hand-in-hand with artists, technicians, and thinkers with whom they produced works like P.P.P. (Position Parallèle au Plancher), Vortex, which speaks about personal transformation using striking images (shown at Mercat de les Flors in 2014), and L’après-midi d’un foehn version 1 (prize for the best physical theatre piece at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and shown at Mercat de les Flors in 2017), which worked with ice and wind, elements that give way in this year's Barcelona Grec Festival to water, one of the protagonists of the trilogy.
Co-produced by Cie Non Nova, Avignon Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Malraux scène nationale Chambéry Savoie, Bonlieu, Scène nationale d’Annecy and the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne as part of the Interreg Programme, financed by European Regional Development Funds, France-Switzerland 2014-2020, Quai CDN Angers Pays de la Loire, Scène nationale d’Orléans, Tandem Scène Nationale, MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis, Bobigny, Scène nationale du Sud-Aquitain – Bayonne, le Grand T, Théâtre de Loire-Atlantique, Les Quinconces - L’Espal, Scène Nationale du Mans, le Carré, Scène nationale et Centre d’Art contemporain de Château-Gontier, Théâtre des Quatre Saisons, Scène conventionnée Art & Création – Gradignan (33), Théâtre Molière>Sète, scène nationale archipel de Thau.
Co-productions and residences at TNB, Centre Européen Théâtral et Chorégraphique de Rennes (National Theatre of Brittany).
La Compagnie Non Nova – Phia Ménard is subsidised by the French Ministry of Culture and Communications– DRAC des Pays de la Loire, Nantes City Council, the Conseil Régional des Pays de la Loire, and the Conseil Départemental de Loire-Atlantique. The troupe also receives support from the Institut Français and the BNP Paribas Foundation.
The Compagnie Non Nova – Phia Ménard is currently associated with the Malraux scène nationale Chambery Savoie and the TNB, Centre Européen Théâtral et Chorégraphique de Rennes (National Theatre of Brittany).
Friday, 8 July, Talk between Phia Ménard and Valentín Roma.
Original idea, dramaturgy, stage design, and artistic management: Phia Ménard, Written by: Jonathan Drillet, Dramaturgy and stage direction for "Mother House": Phia Ménard, Jean-Luc Beaujault, Creation and performance: Fanny Alvarez, Rémy Balagué, Inga Huld Hákonardóttir, Erwan Ha Kyoon Larcher, Elise Legros, Phia Ménard, Lighting design: Eric Soyer, Lighting assistant: Gwendal Malard, Music: Ivan Roussel, Assistant director: Clarisse Delile, Costumes: Fabrice Ilia Leroy , Assistant costume designer: Yolene Guais, Technical director: François Aubry "Moustache", Stage construction and equipment: Pierre Blanchet, Rodolphe Thibaud, Philippe Ragotå, Lighting engineering: Aliénor Lebert, Mickaël Cousin, Sound engineering: Ivan Roussel, Mateo Provost, Stage manager: François Aubry, Pierre Blanchet, David Leblanc, Rodolphe Thibaud, Félix Löhmann, Philippe Marie, Co-manager for the troupe, production, administration, and sales management: Claire Massonnet, Technical director: Olivier Gicquiaud, Production and administration assistant: Constance Winckler, Public relations and production assistant: Justine Lasserrade, Executive producer: Compagnie Non Nova – Phia Ménard, The text for the trilogy was created by Phia Ménard and Jonathan Drillet, with fragments taken from: Hermès Trismégiste (around 150 BC), Vélimir Khlebnikov (Zanguézi, Editions Verdier, 1919-1922), Fritz Lang and Thea Von Harbou (Metropolis, 1927) , John Giorno (Thanx for nothing on my 70th birthday, 2006) , Xu Lizhi, Jenny Chan and Yang (La machine est ton seigneur et ton maître; Edition établie, Agone, 2015) Photography: Christophe Raynaud de Lage
