“I Hate Theater, I Love Pornography”, Zoukak Theatre Company

We started the time of exchange by a listening game consisting in counting together until 20, without indications of who takes the floor, and which obliges to be successful to be on the same tempo, the same moment. (If two people speak at the same time, you have to start again). I then took the time to recall what was for me a workshop of reception: “A time of horizontal exchange, which by “alternative” modes of exchange tries to break the vertical relations of a usual speaking: the fact that those who are more at ease with the oral, in English moreover, those having more culture and theatrical legitimacy are those who in normal time monopolize (in spite of themselves) the time of speaking.
The idea is to create a time of connection, even allowing one to feel legitimate in deciphering one’s feelings (which a usual time of exchange can prevent, the question of legitimacy can even prevent one from knowing oneself what one thought of the show).”
To do this, the reception workshop must organize a time of exchange evacuating the word: Each of the participants had to think of 3 words in their native language that had inspired “I Hate, I Love”, possibly adding music, dance movements, a rhythm, a drawing. We then split into two groups of 4, with the objective of collectively choosing 3 words synthesizing the opinions and around them begin to constitute a small art form to be returned to the other group.
Group 1:
The first group proposed a kind of choir more and more anarchic.
In a circle, each one in a row, to the tune of “à vous dirais-je Maman” sang a loop in French, English and Spanish. Then in the continuity resumed the first person and started in canon until arriving at a result more and more dissonant and chaotic. They then begin to move separately in the room, with the intensity rising, rising, the words becoming more aggressive, before, without concertation, gradually coming down as the fatigue rises. From my point of view: This proposal synthesized a cocktail of emotions, energies (the ritual side of the song in particular) that Zoukak diffused with I Hate I Love. The tune of “À vous dirais-je Maman” reminds us of the children’s songs of the show, with this particular irony. Moreover, the group decided to put themselves in the place of the actors who were deploying a mass of energy (banging on the floor, singing, blowing, for about twenty minutes at the beginning, about twenty in the middle).
Group 2:
After thinking about the terms inequality and truth and trying to represent these concepts with a chair as a base, we decided to create a small game of “inequalities”.
of “inequalities”. Each participant had a chair, which could be folded, and the 4 participants tried to create a structure with the 4 chairs, but finding it impossible to agree, they split up. The music starts, the game begins.
The rules: everyone is seated on a chair, when a seated person claps twice (at once, in succession, or with the clap of another seated person), the participants must change chairs and can when seated try to steal a second or even a third chair.
It is possible when you have two chairs to open the second and simply switch positions, but the “chairless” are on the lookout.
The chair here represented “a truth/voice”, which when accumulated (by a power, a state) constitutes a power, and when lost prevents one from expressing oneself, from acting (explaining why without a chair, the participant lost his/her power of rotation).
For those who have lost their voice, there are only small, risky windows of opportunity left, in which one must try to trick one’s way back to voice.
The idea was to highlight the inequality, the power, through the irony of the game (Emma pointed out that Zoukak used the same register).
We then took the time to explain the two proposals, to go back over them and finally to go back individually on our own words and their place in the common proposal. At the end of the workshop, I had the impression that I knew what the other participants had thought of the show, without at any point having had a real time for organized exchange.

Félix Vannarath

Interview YPAL led by Julia & Candice

Members of the Young Performing Art Lovers (YPAL) community had a long-awaited meeting once again in  La Comédie, CDN of Reims, immersing themselves in the theater and dance performances offered by the FARaraway- Festival des Arts à Reims. This weekend was all about the embraces of old friends and new acquaintances, exploring the topics of democracy, climate, tourism, dance and storytelling through and with each other, sharing different perspectives on familiar experiences. This year, we asked the members of the network, new and old, about how they see the community and what the future may hold for it.

Multiculturalism, various perspectives, and strong connections are at the heart of YPAL, as our interviews confirmed. The common passion for theater and arts as well as the open-minded, genuine spirit of the participants forms an immediate sense of community while the new experiences and viewpoints spur interesting thoughts, conversations, and projects. It becomes a safe space of free exchange, creativity, “keys that they may give back”, indeed a legacy to cherish and grow together and on our own when we return.

These connections transgress borders and are strengthened by the novelty of different cultures and ways of thinking, approaching theater. Hence all the members see how this meeting builds a sense of European community, respect, and solidarity. Theater and arts open up a space for open discussion and collaboration between the public and artists about public issues which may inspire engagement and activism in democracy. These experiences make us feel what others go through, thus cultivating awareness and sensitivity. What is more, it is an artistic, social, and political project which deals with cultural tourism and sustainability at its core.

Hence we wondered how to ensure that more young art-lovers get involved in such an exceptional community. Some emphasized that it is good for the community to grow naturally, by encouraging people to invite those they know and would share the spirit of the programme, while others highlighted that it would be good to do more communication on social media and maybe participate in Erasmus projects so that it could reach more people. Others had the idea of promoting it in universities, theaters, other cultural festivals and the places the participants are coming from. Certainly, if people saw our projects in process, programmes and activities, many would gain interest due to their accessibility and vibrance.

How do they see the future of the encounters? The majority of the response was to have more of it, make it longer, make it more intense with more workshops, maybe at different times so that they can attend more. Besides having more of what the programme is all about, many had interesting ideas and projects to make it grow. Some suggested having programmes in different cities, more projects throughout the year or a long-term common creation of an artistic piece. Keeping in touch could also happen online, on the blog or on social media by sharing reviews of shows we have seen and what we are working on at home. Others noted discussing more subjects, workshops led by the organizers, other artists, or even spending a night at least in Paris.

They would also be excited to extend the project with artistic residencies, maybe having meetings twice a year, or creating a long-term project on the same subject together and having a show at the end. Some would love to see projects about sharing cultural food or one participant had the idea of organizing a workshop about body awareness, listening to each other, and creating connections in movement. They would also be interested in learning about what is behind the scenes of the theater, how to organize it, and sharing expertise in the field.

This shows that YPAL is realized by people’s active engagement and creativity and it evolves through their imagination. What came through during all of these interviews was that participants already awaited the time they could meet and share their enthusiasm and good spirits once again. Perhaps letting the programme grow and having more young art-lovers participate will preserve what works so well, just it may be more intense, diverse, wherever their collective imagination takes them together.

Julia and Candice

For a student, especially an international who still struggles to perfect her subjonctif, Reims can prove a challenging city to explore. Not because it doesn’t have things to offer -quite on the contrary- but rather because it is incredibly easy to get lost in ones’ university circles. Besides, friends’ apartments are close, and Bureau events are plenty. We don’t often move past our dorm rooms or campus because we don’t like to challenge ourselves.

But the artistic community of Reims is offering us students with an opportunity that is difficult to reject. An opportunity that made me, upon participating in it for the first time, reconsider the character of our town. It introduced me not only to new pieces of art and a refreshing group of people but also to original ideas that challenged the way I thought of the relations between art and politics. YPALS stands for Young Performing Arts Lovers and it is a program within the premises of the FARaway art festival of Reims that brings a few dozens of young artists under a Remois roof for a weekend of socialization, artistic exploration, and exposure to original art – and what a weekend it is.

Throughout those few, fleeting days the YPALS were given free tickets to some of the festival’s headlining shows – we got to see riveting work, the likes of Hate Radio, Congo, and the Lingering Now. They were all multifaceted and multidisciplinary shows, bending the boundaries of what cinema, theatre, and dance have to be. But what is unique about watching these shows through the YPAL program is that one gets to experience them alongside likeminded performing artists, that often have idiosyncratic takes to offer about the spectacles. Which leads me to the utmost point about the YPAL experience: the conversation.

Apart from ushering us to shows and giving us plenty of chances to relax and enjoy our environment, the organizers of the festival offered us the chance to participate in free debates amongst ourselves and reputable writers and artists. Imagine the scene: a few dozens of artists from different generations, discussing “between lands,” as the project is appropriately named, and expressing thoughts and counter-thoughts in many different languages via the help of internal translations on issues of democracy, public policy & art. Disagreements soon sparked amongst the cohort but discussions were always polite and respectful albeit being impassioned. We all learned from each other the days of the organized debates, most importantly, we learned that experience of art isn’t universal. We all think of its contribution differently, of how it should be funded or whether it should be regulated. Our conditioning and context greatly influence our politics and we absolutely cannot take other people’s experience for granted.

The program itself took us on a tour around Reims. Even for a seasoned “Remois” student who has lived here for two years, the locations were refreshing and showed the charming and active part of our town. Running from workshop to debate to show, we would shift between the Comedie of Reims, its Atelier, the FRAC (which, despite being right next to Sciences Po, most of us Sciences Pistes had never visited), and the wonderfully unique Manege. On the daily we were treated to elaborate lunches, brunches and dinners by the YPALs organizing team at the Comedie bar, which was dressed in Amazonian leaves for the imminent After Bresil bar night. We utilized these breaks as opportunities for reflection and connection – it is where the YPALs truly got to do what they were brought here to do: learn each other, explore cross-country narratives, opinions, ideas.

In Denmark little thought is given to African history, both contemporary and old. As a Danish student I was never expected to, tested in, or confronted with any history south of Italy. The atrocities that found their ways into our syllabus all took place on European soil. We learned about the mass hunt for witches through medieval times, the persecution of Protestants by Catholics, and the systematic execution of Jews during the Holocaust. And when we were presented with African history, they were snapshots and glimpses of colonialism through a European perspective. Aware of this blind spot in my education, I signed up to see – or rather listen to – Hate Radio, a

powerful reconstruction of the programs broadcast by Radio Mille Collines which played a central role in the atrocity that was the Rwandan genocide in 1994, at Le Comédie during the Faraway festival.

Walking into the amphitheater, I quickly realized that Hate Radio would be a different kind of theatre experience; on the seats were a radio and a headset. On stage was a large, square box fitted with screens on the sides. As soon as we’d tuned in to the radio, these screens started broadcasting. From them four individuals each told their heartbreaking story from the Rwandan genocide. It was captivating in a bewildering way. What they were describing seemed so inhumane, so brutal that the immediate impulse was to reject their stories as unbelievable. But then the screens went up and a recording studio appeared. We had been transported to the center of the unbelievable. Our headphones were now tuned into a recording studio in Kigali in 1994. It was no regular broadcast, however. Three hosts called for murder, persecution, and torture of Tutsis, and they did so in the most lighthearted manner. Intoxicated by the most appalling form of bloodrush, the broadcasters switched from calling for the decapitation of a listener’s neighbor to dancing to their favorite pop tune within mere seconds. I couldn’t believe what was unravelling before me. We were witnesses to a genocide through the mouthpiece of hate that was the Radio Mille Collines in 1994.

“How could this happen?” “How are humans capable of such evil acts?” “Can you even forgive such cruelty?” “Why did no one stop it?” The scenes that were unfolding before me provoked many questions. “Could any of this could happen back home?” I thought to myself. Of course, it could. It had happened during the Holocaust. It was the all too familiar story of a minority persecuted because of minority hate and authoritarianism. But this time it was not in a history book: it was in my ears, in front of my eyes, and happening in real-time. Hate Radio had given me a front-row ticket to the banality of evil.

When the broadcast stopped, I remained in my chair. I had travelled thirty years into the past for two hours and needed a few minutes to gather my thoughts. Then, when leaving the amphitheater, I felt grateful for living in a country where democratic institutions remain strong, hate crimes are punished, and multiculturalism cherished. But I left a little more wary too, a little more aware that. if not cared for, these pillars of society can come rumbling down over a summer.

Anne Goalard and Alice Faure-Dumont met Marion Betriu and Natalia Alvarez Simó at the Teatros del Canal to talk about the creation of a Spanish YPAL group. After the presentation of the YPAL network and its ambitions, we communicated to them our desire to create a group of Madrid spectators from various horizons, to rethink the relationship between audience, live shows and Europe.

A call for applications will be launched by the theatre in the coming weeks to start this group, which Alice will be able to follow at its beginnings and part of which will come to live the Reims YPAL experience in February !

To be continued!