Gisèle Vienne

This story of filial love questions the unsettling questioning of feelings and the norm in which violence is inscribed in the body. Robert Walser centres his concerns around the relationship of the dominated - seemingly well behaved but in reality subversive - with questions of order and rules and obeying or breaking them. 

In this production, Gisèle Vienne builds a universe that superimposes different rhythms and temporalities in a way that brings upheaval to instituted order - that of the family but also of the theatre - through this multiplication of realities. She uses text to sculpt the weaknesses in human emotions. She reads it as a polyphonic monologue, a moving experience between interiority and exteriority, accompanied by theatrical devices: the two actresses Adèle Haenel and Julie Shanahan each play the roles of their respective characters while lending their voices to the others in a complex performance of vocal dissociation.  

With this multiplication of characters, a form of deconstruction develops that questions what we see and the fantasised representation of reality. The original music by Stephen O’Malley and François Bonnet accompanies the actresses’ performance like an extension of their bodies. 

L’Étang was created in residence at the Brittany National Theatre in November 2020.  

Based on the original work Der Teich by Robert Walser, for Kerstin. 

Design, staging, scenography, dramaturgy: Gisèle Vienne  
Adaptation of the text: Adèle Haenel, Julie Shanahan and Henrietta Wallberg in collaboration with Gisèle Vienne  
Performed by Adèle Haenel & Julie Shanahan  
Lighting: Yves Godin  
Sound design: Adrien Michel  
Musical direction: Stephen F. O'Malley  
Original music: Stephen F. O’Malley & François J. Bonnet  
Tour assistant: Sophie Demeyer  
External perspective: Dennis Cooper & Anja Röttgerkamp  
Scenographic collaboration: Maroussia Vaes  
Doll design: Gisèle Vienne  
Doll production: Raphaël Rubbens, Dorothéa Vienne-Pollak and Gisèle Vienne in collaboration with the Brittany National Theatre  
Set production: Nanterre-Amandiers CDN  
Set and props: Gisèle Vienne, Camille Queval and Guillaume Dumont  
Costumes: Gisèle Vienne and Camille Queval  
Make-up and wigs: Mélanie Gerbeaux  
Stage management: Richard Pierre  
Sound management: Adrien Michel and Mareike Trillhaas  
Lighting management: Iannis Japiot and Samuel Dosière  
Set management: Antoine Hordé and Jack McWeeny  
Production created in collaboration with Kerstin Daley-Baradel and Ruth Vega Fernandez  
Thanks to Étienne Bideau-Rey, Nelson Canart, Zac Farley, Erik Houllier, Pauline Jakobiak, Tristan Lahoz, César Van Looy, Jean-Paul Vienne  
Production and diffusion: Alma Office: Anne-Lise Gobin, Alix Sarrade, Camille Queval and Andrea Kerr  
Administration: Étienne Hunsinger and Giovanna Rua

Production: DACM – Compagnie Gisèle Vienne  
Co-production: Nanterre-Amandiers CDN / Brittany National Theatre / Maillon, Strasbourg Theatre – European stage / Holland Festival, Amsterdam / Transfabrik – French and German fund for the performance arts / André Malraux cultural centre (Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy) / Comédie de Genève / La Filature – Mulhouse National Theatre / Le Manège – Reims National Theatre / MC2: Grenoble / Ruhrtriennale / Tandem National Theatre / Kaserne Basel / Kampnagel Hamburg International Summer Festival / The Paris Autumn Festival / Garonne Theatre / CCN2 – Grenoble National Choreographic Centre / BIT Teatergarasjen, Bergen / Black Box Teater, Oslo  
With the support of the National Dance Centre, La Colline National Theatre and Vidy-Lausanne Theatre  
Thanks to Point Éphémère for the provision of space and to Playroom, SMEM, Fribourg for the provision of its sound studio  
DACM – Compagnie Gisèle Vienne is accredited by the French Ministry for Culture – Drac Grand Est, the Grand Est region and the city of Strasbourg.  
The company receives regular support for its international tours from the Institut Français.  
Gisèle Vienne is an associate artist at the National Dance Centre and Brittany National Theatre