The woman says to the man. The woman-actress says to the man-director. With words of a theatrical rehearsal, on an empty theatre stage, with successive monologues, never-ending, in a war of words. A work about the incompatible desires and the different roles in love, and in work, of two lives of the stage. 

Turning the tables and each time transforming the person who is sitting quietly and listening into a mirror, a prism of the words with which they have been bombarded, into an almost motionless centre of attention, I follow the writer who makes the man say:

That which both the protagonists have recognized about their work in the theatre, they have forgotten in their private lives. And love is exactly that: knowing how to listen to the other person. As I director, I believe in a Theatre of listening. A Theatre which asks the spectator to look again for the words behind the surface of the images and which asks of the interpreters to give life and rhythm to the words, breath and space upon the naked stage – and that is what we try to do.

 

Clôture de l’Amour is an ode to separation. Two monologues in response to one another make up the epilogue of love, the end of a relationship. The protagonists are Stan and Audrey, opponents in a battle where words are their weapons. Memories, experiences, emotions, real and imaginary, life and art are carried away by a verbal tornado which shall leave ruins in its wake. A shared past gives way to a painful present and a future which does not exist. Pascal Rambert with words that are direct and diligently unprocessed, choreographs a “dialogue” where words, silence and body, like an alternating pattern, become the centre of the theatrical act. A barrage of words, without punctuation, which sometimes escape wildly or become derailed, are repeated and then return, sometimes submissive and other times like blades and bullets, are aimed and released to execute. And beneath these words – this gunfire, love is buried. Dead.

 

Pascal Rambert (1962).  He is a writer, director and choreographer.

Since 2007 he has been managing the T2G-Théâtre de Gennevilliers which he turned into the National Centre of Contemporary Theatrical Creation. All his works have been presented abroad, in Europe, N. America, N. Africa, Russia and Asia.

His texts, from Solitaires Intempestifs publications, have been translated and published in many languages such as English, Russian, Italian, German, Japanese, Chinese, Croatian, Slovene, Polish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Spanish, and Catalan.

As regards his choreographies, including Memento Mori which he created in 2013, they have also been presented at some of the most important festivals and places dedicated to  modern dance, such as Montpellier, Avignon, Utrecht, Geneva, Ljubljana, Skopje, Moscow, Hamburg, Modena, Freiburg and Tokyo.

He also directed many operas in France and the U.S. and made short films which were chosen for and came first at the Pantin festivals of Locarno, Miami and Paris.

His latest play, Clôture de l’Amour, created for the Avignon Festival of 2011, with Audrey Bonnet and Stanislas Nordey, was met with worldwide success. It has been performed over 140 times and received numerous awards.

 

At this time he is writing – and in 2016 will direct – the play Actrice for the actors of the Art Theatre of Moscow, as well as L’enlèvement d’Europe for the actors of the national Theatre of Zagreb.

In 2016 he will stage his play entitled Argument at the Comédie de Reims and the T2G Théâtre de Gennevilliers.