No one

Through this new play, we continue to examine the questions raised in our earlier projects and explore the role living creatures have in our environment. In our theatrical writing, we work to put life in danger, going to the extremes of humanity and exploring abnormality in order to really drive home how infinitely precarious existence is, how fragile the human condition is. It is as if this act gives us a better understanding of what we are and what drives us. For this project we once again decided to dig down into and dissect the body. In this case, it is about a body that is in danger and evolving in a hostile environment.

Essentially the writing in No one is based on the tension between an individual and a group.

On one hand, our writing is motivated by creating a group that acts unpredictably, including its power and the way it functions. We aim to ascertain the mechanisms in a crowd that lead to the loss of individual responsibility and the identification of a scapegoat. We also examine how the power of a mob mentality can lead to the worst possible outcome: a witch-hunt.

On the other hand, it is important for us to show the aftermath of the witch-hunt. When the violence has abated and the group breaks up, how do its members rationalise their actions? How do they become individuals again and go back to their daily lives?

We researched dramaturgical literature on the figure of the scapegoat and its consequences, as well as looking into material about how mobs act, their power and their psychology. Soon we found ourselves facing a serious of questions with worrying implications for current affairs which clashed with our own values.

How can something so terrible happen?

What is the source of the frenzied, savage character of the mob?

Aren’t we faced with scapegoats and witch-hunts on a daily basis?

Is there ostracism in the media, in politics, online?

What drives these witch-hunts?

How do I fit in to this?

How would I behave if I was the victim or the perpetrator?

What role do I have in this kind of behaviour?

What kind of conscience can I develop, between my own as an individual and that of the group?

Now we are convinced that we need to learn how to think by ourselves and for ourselves as part of a collective conscience. For us it is crucial that we question our individual responsibilities within groups and that is why we launched our new piece: No one. Our production aims to be a visceral and existential experience designed to keep indifference at bay. We believe that theatre has a responsibility to elicit a human response. “By using powerful aesthetic triggers, theatre confronts the limits of human experience and gives rise to extreme situations which make the audience revisit the founding principles of what it means to be human.”

• Conception and direction : Sophie Linsmaux and Aurelio Mergola
• With : Julie Dieu, Colin Jolet, Muriel Legrand, Sophie Leso, François Regout
• Group of tourists : Nunzio Cisternino, Raphaël Faelli, Stella Kieffer, Fabienne Lichtert, Mélanie Pluss, Maurice Raty, Stefano Rocco, Laura Ughetto, Christine Wayenbergh, Dany Woit
• Scenario : Sophie Linsmaux, Aurelio Mergola, Thomas van Zuylen
• Set : Aurélie Deloche
• Lighting, General Management, special effects : Hugues Gigrard
• stage manager : Rudi Bovy
• Sound Design : Guillaume Istace
• Movement Design : Sophie Leso
• Props and set's assistant : Chloé Jacqmotte
• Costumes : Camille Collin
• Seamstress : Cinzia Derom
• Staging Assistant : Sophie Jallet
• Construction : Didier Rodot
• Construction's and decoration's supports : Sophie Hazebrouck, Adrian Pellegrin, Aurélien Gobeaux, Franck Crabbé en collaboration avec les ateliers du Théâtre de La Balsamine
• Illusion : Tim Oelbrandt
• prosthetists : Florence Thonet, Anne Van Nyen
• Accompaniment to production and diffusion : Bloom Project - Claire Alex
• A Cie Still Life Production
• Coproduction : le Théâtre Les Tanneurs, la maison de la culture de Tournai/maison de création et La Coop asbl
• Delegated production : le Théâtre Les Tanneurs
• With the support of : the Ministry of Culture Theatre Service, de Shelterprod, du Taxshelter.be, ING, du Tax-Shelter du gouvernement fédéral belge
• With the help of : Centre des Arts scénique, de la SACD, de la résidence Ad Libitum, du Théâtre de l’Ancre, du Théâtre 140 et de l’Infini Théâtre
• Cie Still Life is a house Artist by le Théâtre Les Tanneurs