OK, Just what WAS That? – Wednesday, 8 October

This thing was billed as a “Spectacle,” which means it could have been pretty much any kind of “performance art” from juggling to mime to puppetry to circus acts to satiric sketches to magic show to mythological tableau to theatre of the absurd to … well, who knows what! This production was called simply “J’Oublie Tout” (“I Forget Everything”), which didn’t help define it much! But I wanted to get in to see the now-almost-completed renovation of Carreau du Temple, an impressive structure in the 3^rd arrondissement, so I went ahead and bought a ticket. (For more info on this structure, see one of my posts from 2008 here:  http://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2008/09/nobody-mistook-me-for-fashionista.html )

The aftermath of the "Spectacle"

Even after seeing the show, I can’t quite figure out what it was. I guess that I’m going to have to attend more Spectacles to develop my knowledge and appreciation of the art form! Entering the hall, we found a proscenium stage; on the left in front of the curtain was a large framed mostly-clay-colored “picture” with an attached paint brush on an easel; on the right was a metal tower with a pendulum, topped with a vacillating bird-type creature. The lights went down and the “painting” started dripping water as the attached brush moved up and down (one of the three actors was sitting on a perch behind it and presumably operating the brush via a magnet), revealing a bucolic painting behind the clay. The pendulum started making a ticking sound and the bird’s mouth opened and closed. A gas lantern lit up. The curtains opened. One actor was sitting on a chair underneath the end of a conveyor belt, appearing to be sleeping, the belt started moving, and objects on the belt started falling on his head. A spotlight lit up, projecting a distorted silhouette of him on a paper canvas toward the back of the stage. Another actor entered with a bucket of paint and painted the top edge of the silhouette very thickly and wetly, creating blue dribbles of paint on the canvas below the edge line. Then a large turtle started moving up the conveyor belt and almost fell on the first actor, but he “woke up” first. He looked dazed and confused and walked across the stage to another actor, who also appeared to be asleep, and seemed to try to wake her up using various techniques including starting up a puppet circular saw and log contraption. After she "woke up," she went to the back of the stage and tore the paper-canvas-with-silhouette along the wet paint line. Etc. etc. etc. Large puppet objects (not characters) and contraptions, dripping water and falling objects, canvases that are painted and ripped, tilting and collapsing tables, recurring turtle sightings, interactions but not connections, minimal vocalizations, sleep-states, almost-awake-states, confusion-states, spotlight-projected silhouettes, squawking bird, etc. continued for about 1.5 hours. The crowd went wild. Some of us went away entertained but confused. Perhaps some of my theatre friends can speculate on what it all meant! [P.S. one of my friends responded, "yes, but you must remember that the French were crazy about Jerry Lewis!"]

Here's a link to their Facebook page about this production. It even includes an equally mystifying video!  http://www.carreaudutemple.eu/2014/06/16/joublie-tout

Carreau du Temple is located between the “Temple” and “Republic” Métro stops. It was raining by the time I got off the Métro, and I had left my umbrella back in the apartment (again! – when will I ever learn?!?) when I left in the early afternoon, so yup, I got soaked again. I did treat myself to a cab ride home after the performance and walked by Saturne resto at around 11 pm to see if I could get in without a reservation (see Friday’s post for more info about this place:  http://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2014/10/why-do-some-people-make-it-hard-to-be.html ). But no, they were totally booked for the evening and I could see that every table was full of apparently happy diners. Gotta give it a try next time I’m in town, and hopefully drag one or two others with me so that I’m not turned away for being a party of merely one! Or maybe I should claim to be schizophrenic, and say that there really are two in my party!

The auditorium - nice comfy chairs! - it seats about 250

Here are some photos of the performance/concert hall (which is in the southeast corner of Carreau du Temple) - I took the interior shots after the show, hence very few patrons appear - the lobby areas were actually packed with people earlier in the evening:

The hall's lobby and box office

The bar and restaurant (in the background) near the entrance