Plexus Polaire / FRANCE
ASHES received two prizes in the festival of Fira de Titelles de Lleida, Spain:
Drac d'or for the best show awarded by the International Festival Jury (with jurors from festivals in the Netherlands, South Korea, UK, Greece, Denmark, United States, Germany and France)
Drac D'or Julieta Agusti to the best show "for its scenic excellence and its success in conveying a story from a novel through a risky dramaturgy"
The story speaks about internal battles, this monster which wants to take control
Ashes is a visual show inspired by the novel Before I Burn by Gaute Heivoll. Ashes is the story of a pyromaniac who in 1978, the year of the author’s birth, ravaged a village in the South of Norway. While recounting this true story, elements of the writer’s own story appear. The two parallel narratives intersect, the meeting created by mirrors and echoes, thereby illustrating the faults present in the human soul and the fine line between sanity and madness.
What is this uncontrollable fire that burns in the heart of human beings?
Who do we see when we look at ourselves?
Ashes is a story told through images. Text is absent from the story, except for a few sentences projected for the audience to read. Communication occurs via other senses. The style and the aesthetics of the set and puppets are directly connected with these dramaturgical choices. The show appears to consist of independent pieces that make sense only in their juxtaposition. This non-linear and non-chronological approach enlists the audience as co-creators. They have to investigate and reflect upon their own feelings to make sense of the story. Each audience member will do so in their own way.
The pyromaniac is represented by a human-sized puppet, surrounded by three manipulators. This physical control reflects the madness that consumes him. He is a victim of both external and internal forces that dominate him; by the actor playing the author and the internal voices (puppeteers) taking control.
It is as dark as the night but so intense and so well done.
Since 2008, Yngvild Aspeli, Norwegian director of Plexus Polaire, meets in her shows a true team in confidence and complicity dedicated to the artistic creation. 3 performances have been created : Signaux in 2011, Opera Opaque in 2013, and Cendres (Ashes) in 2014. A new show is on its way and will premiere in september 2017 - Darkroom - a piece on the feminist Valerie Solanas, inspired by Sara Stridsberg's novel the Dream Faculty.
Through images and words, sounds and gestures, imagination and substance, Plexus Polaire gives life to the most deeply buried feelings.