Compagnie Canicule
Canicule is a Belgian theatre company founded by Clémentine Colpin, Pauline Desmarets and Olivia Smets. Driven by a desire to step outside the box, it explores hybrid and sensitive forms, blending theatre, performance, and unexpected spaces.
​
The company takes shape around a shared artistic language forged over more than ten years of creation; an insatiable desire to offer audiences theatre that is both unifying and demanding; a constant pooling of practices, tools, workloads and production methods; but above all, an urgent and collective need to question the world around us — with heart, humour, boldness and sincerity — in a movement that is at once lucid and vibrant.
​
Since 2015, Canicule has been inventing performances in a variety of formats — from a travelling car to an offbeat cabaret — always carried by collective energy and a distinctive artistic voice.
©YABEC
Annette
To dive into the flesh of a 75-year-old woman as one would enter a forest. To wander through her sensory memories and the winding paths of her mind.To feel the richness and complexity of her existence. To meet Annette.
Some encounters mark you forever.
When Clémentine met Annette, it transformed her relationship to the world. Untameable, filled with an insatiable longing for elsewhere and for freedom, Annette has always managed to break free from the roles imposed on her (mother, wife, woman) to embrace new territories and endlessly reinvent herself.
​
Over the course of many conversations, she entrusted Clémentine with more than 70 years of intimate experience, speaking of her choices, the history of her body, her escapes — even the most violent ones. How can one, in return, share the gift of this given memory?
​
By bringing Annette, two actresses and two dancers onto the stage, and weaving these memories together with imagined worlds, this landscape-shaped portrait offers a different perspective on old age.
​
Between philosophical exploration and carnival celebration, between testament and collective dance, ANNETTE is a tribute to the multitudes we are, to our metamorphoses and our rebirths.
​
Conception and direction Clémentine Colpin · Co-conception and artistic collaboration Olivia Smets · Assistant direction Charline Curtelin (XS version), Lila Leloup · Performers Annette Baussart, Pauline Desmarets, Ben Fury, Alex Landa Aguirreche, Olivia Smets · Dramaturgy Sara Vanderieck · Scenography and costumes Camille Collin · Costume making Cinzia Derom · Scenography intern Elisa González (XS version) · Sound design Noée Voisard · Lighting design Nora Boulanger Hirsch · Sound management Noée Voisard and/or Victor Petit · Stage and lighting management Christophe Van Hove / Antoine Steier / Léa Vandooren · Support Le Rideau · Le Vilar · Théâtre des Tanneurs · La Coop · Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles · Centre des Écritures Dramatiques Wallonie-Bruxelles · COCOF · SACD · Tour à Plomb · Centre Box120 · Charleroi danse / La Raffinerie · SEN – Studio Étangs Noirs · Shelterprod · Belgian government’s Tax Shelter.
Creation 26-27
Documentary fiction /
Interdisciplinary /
sound - theatre - radio -
movement
Unbelievable!
Have you always dreamed of it? We made it happen! With surprise guests and grandiose decorations that will spark your nostalgia while dazzling your eyes and ears, Unbelievable! invites you to experience the magic of the United States of America — for real!
Have you always dreamed of it? We made it happen! With surprise guests and grandiose decorations that will spark your nostalgia while dazzling your eyes and ears, Unbelievable! invites you to experience the magic of the United States of America — for real!
​
In Unbelievable!, dreams just might come true, and we might leave with our pockets full and our eyes shining. Britney Spears might escape her father, Melania Trump might silence her monstrous husband, and Frank Sinatra might come back to life for one last show.
​
In Unbelievable!, anything will be possible—for those who dare to believe. Drawing inspiration from the famous adage “fake it until you make it,” and making lavish use of artifice, the show will not hesitate to push spectacle and excess to their limits, only to catapult us, moments later, behind the scenes and reveal their fragility and the violent disillusionment that follows.
​
Somewhere between a cabaret evening, a fake making-of, and a lookalike contest, Unbelievable! borrows from the codes of American culture that have shaped our collective imagination, while subtly questioning how our irresistible fascination with dominant fictions allows figures such as the terrifying clown Donald Trump to be elected presidents.
​
Concept: Pauline Desmarets · Co-concept and outside eye: Clémentine Colpin · Artistic collaboration: Olivia Smets · Assistant: Zoé Janssens · Performers: Raphaël Desmarets, Davis Freeman, Marouan Iddoub, Olivia Smets · Music creation: Raphaël Desmarets · Dramaturgy: Diane Fourdrignier · Set design and props: Nina Lopez Le Galliard · Costumes: Cinzia Derom · General stage management and lighting design: Raphaël Noël · Sound stage management: Jérémie Boutet · Set design intern: Cédric Michel · Production and distribution : Fomo Productions · Support: Mars – Mons arts de la scène; Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles; Latitude 50 – Circus and Street Arts Hub; Le Manège Maubeuge; Les Halles de Schaerbeek; Théâtre Varia; Théâtre de l’Ancre; Le BAMP; WBTD – Wallonie Bruxelles Théâtre Danse; WBI – Wallonie Bruxelles International; Shelterprod; Taxshelter.be; ING; Belgian Federal Government Tax Shelter.
​
​
​
​