"Be a realistic dreamer. Make the imagination perceptible and use or invent the means to awaken the dream to reality."

"Perpetuum Mobile" is a "phenomenal" object that is both organic and mechanical and is gradually embodied as the play progresses. Strange objects and projected pictures gradually come together. They breathe life and movement into "Perpetuum Mobile."

Shadow puppetry and images give tangible form to concepts of time: the repetitive time of our daily lives, biological time, the cycle of the seasons, of day and night, the movement of the planets across the night sky… The shadow areas create space in time. The action takes place on a revolving, round stage. In this way, it echoes the cycles of time. Initially this represents the intimate world of Kidam – his kitchen. As the show progresses, it will come to represent more generally his planet.

In Perpetuum Mobile, the images are acoustic. Voice, the music of words and objects begin to resonate. The revolving stage shows what's behind the scenes and allows the puppeteers to work in full view of or hidden from the audience. Their perceptible and sensitive presence accompanies the audience all through the story. The objects double up and undergo metamorphosis. An awareness of time gained through movement introduces the notions of duration and flexible time.

The story

"Kidam’s only companion is a mechanical cuckoo which relentlessly counts the seconds, the minutes, the hours, …
Every day, the cuckoo lays an egg and Kidam boils it and eats it. One day, the cuckoo lays a strange, luminous egg then suddenly dies. The clockwork stops and with it the well-ordered life of Kidam… He is lost.
Now he is all on his own, he follows his luminous egg on a quest in which time is not only mechanical but also alive and organic.
Images pertaining to the different notions of time glide past, disappear and are transformed, reminding us of the natural cycles and the evanescence of the world. In this way, "Perpetuum Mobile" comes to life and sets itself in motion.
As he travels, Kidam creates for himself a new way of measuring Time, a time that is not imposed from the outside but that is sensorial and lived."

The Players

Design: Aurélie Morin, Elise Gascoin

Production: Aurélie Morin, Elise Gascoin, Elise Vigneron
Stage construction: David Frier, Pierre Garabiol
Metal structures: Tibo Parsy
Costumes: Patricia Depetiville
Sound track production: David Morin, Franck Adrien

On tour 

Puppeteers: Aurélie Morin, Elise Vigneron
General stage management, light management: Jean-Louis Uliana/Franck Adrien
Sound: Bruno Cribier

Co-productions

Le Grand Bleu, E.N.P.D.A/Lille/Nord pas de Calais
Le Théâtre de Nuit

With the support of: Théâtre les Aires/Die, workshops of La Griotte – Die

Schedule

This show is no longer available for distribution