Philippe Genty: Ne m´oublie pas / Forget Me Not(programme from the performance)
Philippe Genty: Ne m´oublie pas / Forget Me Not (Mladý svět, 9. 3. 1995)

Photos from the performance





Archa Theatre and French Institut present

Philippe Genty: Ne m´oublie pas / Forget Me Not

March 24, 1995 in the Archa Theatre

Author and directed by: Philippe Genty
Choreography and directed by: Mary Underwood
Original music: René Aubry
Light Design: Eric Wurtz
Costumes: Charline Bauce
Performers: Nathalie Decrette, Francisco Denis, Laurent Fraunie, Nicolas Gousseff, Sean Myatt
Dancers: Catherine Martin, Mireille Favre-Bulle

The company of Philippe Genty was founded thirty years age from an original idea of financing a tour of the Citroen 2CV with a theatrical performance on all five continents. Since 1975, the company has presented several performances. It has participated in many festivals and has toured all over the globe.


Philippe Genty: Dream of Magic and Stage
We would like to describe the spectacle, to characterize it with big words. However, it is not possible to put Genty's theatre into words. His theatre can happen without words, so it is not possible to reduce it to them. It works directly in the imagination of audiences of all countries, where Genty's ensemble have performed. From "Désirs Parade" to "Dérives", "Ne m´oublie pas" arrives as a new metamorphosis of this unique theatre, which is not possible to compare to anything by any means.
          The performance returns to the favorite themes of Philippe Genty: to the memory, to the journey of life, to a period of dedication. Three unforgettable lines of one woman (child, girl and adult woman) pervade. The living element performs together with the inert, the actors are also clowns, acrobats and manipulators; they fall with their puppet twins. Dreams, magic, cruelty and tenderness come out from all four corners of the stage... The memories pour out of a box and carry the audience away in a stream of dreams, music and pictures. The music is created by the laughs and cries in the performance, as we watch it in disbelief. The music accompanies the dancers - magicians whose master is surprising. We feel that we are lost in the bottomless depths, just like Alice. Yes, Alice in Wonderland.
          "The most fascinating thing for me is to create the picture," says Philippe Genty about himself. "The picture provides me with the opportunity to offer several new meanings at once. The power of the poetry of the picture is extraordinary." And such is the world of Philippe Genty: a kingdom of fantasy and phantasmagoria.


The performance was realized with the support of AFAA.





Philippe Genty: Ne m´oublie pas / Forget Me Not

The French group of Philippe Genty created quite a storm in Prague. Everyone who had the opportunity of seeing the hopelessly sold out performance Ne móublie pas, could not speak about anything else. Those who couldn't see the performance complained about the bad judgement of the organizers and skeptically accept the promise of the leading Archa Theatre, that they will definitely see them again.
          What was created by the seven members of the ensemble of French puppeteer Philippe Genty, together with the choreographer Mary Underwood, that tore the audience to such a deafening ovation? It is quite certain that is was because of their many ideas and pictures filled with nostalgia, and especially the unrepeatable beauty. But mainly because of the connection of the apparently easiness, banal situations and theatrical tricks (some of them are even famous variety pieces; others have an analogy in fair side attractions) to the unexpected stage metaphors, rising from the professional performance. Everyone who saw the performance can understand the "story" which consisted of single episodes of some form or other. For some people, it could mean several different relationships between a man and a woman, for someone else childhood, growing up and the ripping of the three unique female characters - yet also the vain dance of human death, the balls of vampires, the recollections of the anxiety of childhood. The performance of the girl, with the scarf which in her hands turns into a fan, a conch, a huge skirt or butterfly wings, was the highlight of the performance.... Genty charmed the audience with his simplicity or his refined space and craft perfection. The title of his performance is a message to the less refined. It is not possible to forgot any of Genty's performance.

Nina Malíková, Mladý svět, 9. 3. 1995