© Dirk Sevenants
Théâtre d'Un Jour
Patrick Masset founded the Théâtre d'Un Jour in 1994. A director with a degree in philosophy, Patrick Masset comes from a background in theatre and is passionate about hand-to-hand work; he advocates physical, transdisciplinary theatre rooted in reality.
In 2008, he created L'Enfant qui ..., a show based on the work of sculptor Jephan de Villiers.
With Strach - a fear song, he is guided by two desires: to bring together circus and opera, via the original concept of ‘portés de voix’, and to rediscover a circus of the origins, wild and strange.
In his latest project, Reclaim, a lyric singer, five circus performers and two cellists invite us to experience an imaginary ritual in which the writing and the dramaturgy lead the work of the body and the voice towards a fundamentally artistic proposition. Reclaim is a collective experience, an act of resistance that means reclaiming what you have been separated from.
Reclaim
RECLAIM is an imaginary ritual in which an opera singer, two cellists, and five acrobatic lifting artists invite us to rediscover a fairer relationship with the world. What is offered here is not a performance, but a collective experience.
This project is conceived as a necessity, a form of secular prayer.
A singular moment to be experienced as a return to the origins of theatre—marked by wildness, the circle, strangeness, sometimes monstrosity, extreme closeness, and fear.
RECLAIM is an act of resistance, meaning to become capable of recovering, of reclaiming what one has been separated from.
writing and direction Patrick Masset · singer Blandine Coulon en alternance avec Camille Brault · circus artists Chloé Chevallier, César Mispelon, Lisandro Gallo alternating with Sofía Belén Enríquez, Paul Krügener, Joaquin Diego Bravo alternating with Lucas Elias. · cellists Eugénie Defraigne alternating with Suzanne Vermeyen and Florence Sauveur, Ambre Tamagna alternating with Claire Goldfarb · general and light manager Manu Buttner alternating with Paul-Emile Perreau · set design Oria Puppo · puppet Polina Borissova · masks Isis Hauben · iron work Jean-Marc Simon · painted backdrop Eugénie Obolensky · choregraphic work Dominique Duszynski · assistant Lola Chuniaud · light design Frédéric Vannes (theatre) & Emily Brassier (tent) · production and distribution : Bérénice Masset / Fomo Productions · coproductions : les Halles de Schaerbeek (B), Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg - Scène Européenne (F), Le Vilar - Louvain-la-Neuve (B), le Palais des Beaux-Arts - Charleroi (B), UP - Circus & Performing Arts (B) · supports MAD Festival (B), Centre Culturel de Bièvre (B), Theater op de Markt/Dommelhof van Neerpelt (B), CAS (B), Wallonie-Bruxelles International, Loterie Nationale (FWB), la Wallonie and Wallonie Bruxelles Théâtre Danse.
Maeterlinck Award 2023 (B)
Saint Joseph of the FIT– Rio Preto Award 2024 (Br)
Florencia Award of the best foreign show (Ur)
© Luis Aureo
© Anne Baraquin
Creation
2026–28 season
MANICOMIO
or the pleasure of being useless
A wordless, in-the-round performance featuring five artists, Manicomio explores the forms of confinement that run through our societies today. What happens when a society seeks to contain what escapes its norms? What exceeds them, resists them, or cannot find its place within the frameworks it has constructed?
Through physical theatre and music, five bodies confront the structures that contain them, the rules that constrain them, and the visible or invisible boundaries that separate them. They try to remain standing, to reach one another, to find ways through where something closes in. Close beside them, the audience shares in this movement: watching and being watched, experiencing what separates us from others and what, despite everything, might still connect us.
This exploration extends beyond the stage through an extensive programme of engagement work carried out in psychiatric hospitals, care homes, reception centres for asylum seekers and cultural organisations. These are places where questions of confinement, norms, care and autonomy are never abstract: they are lived through bodies, spaces and relationships.
These encounters feed into the creative process and bring us back to the same question: how can we live together as a society when no life ever fully conforms to the norm? What, then, do we do with those parts of each of our lives that never quite fit within the established frameworks?
writing and direction Patrick Masset · with Blandine Coulon, Chloé Chevallier, Paul Krügener, César Mispelon, Jean-Louis Cortès alternating with Yohann Dubois · musical arrangements Jean-Louis Cortès · general manager and co-light designer Manu Buttner · co-light designer Frédéric Vannes · masks, puppets and props Isis Hauben assisted by Aline Claus · iron work Thomas Théret · production and distribution : T1J and Fomo Productions · coproductions le Poche (B) · Up Circus & Performing arts (B) supports Vivalia Psychiatric Hospital La Clairière (B), Val de Meuse Red Cross Nursing Home of Givet (F), Centrum Het opvangcentrum in Poelkapelle (B), the Athanor of Dave (B), Cultural Centre of Bièvre (B), Cultural Centre of Beauraing (B), Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles - Artistic Creation Department (B), Walloon Region (B),Wolubilis Cultural Centre of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert (B).
Vivre
(working title)
The “Living” project (working title) is an intercultural artistic initiative unfolding in six phases, scheduled between the 2025–26 and 2028–29 seasons.
Its aim is to build a bridge between different geographical, social, and cultural areas across Europe, West Africa, and South America.
This project explores the theme of transmission through a series of encounters and unique creative processes in which each culture questions and enriches the others. The objective is to bring together artists from a wide range of disciplines (music, dance, circus, sung voice, etc.) and to interweave their perspectives and practices around the creation of three original works—independent yet complementary—which can be programmed together or separately.
Creation
2028–29 season
© Olafur Eliasson
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