Puppets / Object Theater (From 8 years old, duration 45 minutes)
A creation by Mayumi Inoue and Jean-Marie Lorvellec

A Filiko Théâtre production

 

 

■ Story
A box containing hair and documents was left in a house in Nantes, France. According to the documents, this hair belonged to Eugénie, a seamstress born in 1895. She suffered two wars in her life. Death, poverty and the illness of her husband and children also hit her.
But no matter how desperate she was, she decided to live. A beautiful dream world where she finds her memories has healed her heart . In any difficult situation, we can forget everything and immerse ourselves in the peaceful and beautiful world of our mind.

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■ Occasion and meeting
In 2020 in Nantes, Mayumi Inoue, a Japanese artist who practices the art of weaving met Jean-Marie Lorvellec, actor and director. Two lives cross and one thing leading to another, their conversation comes to evoke a seamstress who lived a long time ago in the house where this meeting scene is played. She left a big metal box containing old papers, administrative documents and a big lock of hair.
When the box was opened, a woman appeared and the whole of the twentieth century suddenly jumped into Mayumi and Jean-Marie's faces. Studying the documents, tracing, deducing, cross-referencing, interweaving the clues: 5 years old in 1900, 19 in 14, 44 in 39... Then compassion rises, an empathy at a distance, in time. Dusting off. Reinspire.
The "Eugénie project" (provisional title) is launched. A puppet and object theater show about Eugénie's life, a life of effort and courage.

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■ Background of the story
Eugénie ailing woman. Eugénie mother forsaken. Eugénie invisible woman whose we suppose the hands, whose we are considering the face. The body shaped by patient efforts next to the dead of her family.

Today, we have lost the familiarity with death, the habit of death, of talking about death. There is a reflex of fear, of superstition: as if to speak of death risk of causing it. In the same way, children are often preserved from the confrontation with death. And when they do come across it, it can provoke uncontrolled anguish. Mayumi and Jean-Marie were freely inspired by the Brittany legend (France)  which says that the souls of people pass into their objects when they die and remain captive there indefinitely. But if someone knows how to recognize them in this new form by soaking up it, then they can deliver them and they can live again.

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■ Mayumi's works
Mayumi is interested in memory and time passing through the object and trying to prove its existence.
She expressed the desire to create works with Eugénie's documents and hair. For her, this work would be even more meaningful if she did it in the house where Eugenie had lived. There, Mayumi created three weaving pieces, in which administrative documents, a child's photo, writings and hair are intertwined.

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Profile
■ Mayumi Inoue
Mayumi Inoue is a Japanese artist who practices the art of weaving.
She currently lives and works in France, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of Japan. 
The materials she uses - hair, musical scores, books, documents - are loaded with stories. Meticulously, she interweaves them to bring them back to life, and in this way, she invents new narratives inspired by the past. With infinite patience, she questions memories, interweaves correspondences. Since 2018, she has been weaving hair donated by people who have undergone cancer treatments. The delicacy and care she brings to her art practice is an allegory of the will to live.
Mayumi Inoue perpetuates the fabric of destinies.

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■ Jean-Marie Lorvellec
Actor, director, author and trainer, Jean-Marie Lorvellec was a student at the Studio Théâtre du CRDC de Nantes in the 1990s.
Since 1997, he has participated in the festival "La Folle Journée" and regularly collaborates with René Martin, the creator of this international festival, for readings, recordings or shows. Jean-Marie teaches theater in various high schools, and designs and carries out practical courses.
He organizes artistic events in industrial wastelands and gardens.
In parallel to his acting career with different companies, he leads his own theatrical projects within his company Filiko Théâtre.

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■ Contact
Mayumi Inoue / e-mail: umirun_run@yahoo.co.jp

Jean-Marie Lorvellec / Filiko Théâtre / e-mail: filikotheatre@gmail.com