A TV-team’s desperate search for the last three surviving animal species on earth is contrasted by a family’s increasingly absurd daily existence in this funny, sensitive portrait of humanity – surprised by the power of nature and refusing to see the truth that’s right there in front of them. This performance is as much a warning signal as a poetic reminder of human creativity and boundless tenacity.

In three acts we witness natural catastrophes and their effects on a family: an extreme heat wave, a hurricane and a flood. The encounters with nature’s power generate challenging physical theatre that places great demands on the actors. Hyper-realistic, full-sized puppets also appear onstage, among them a polar bear with young and an unusually rare flamingo.

This production is characterized by an absurdist and colorful esthetic in which odd objects from flea markets have inspired the scenographer to create a beautiful, frightening world. Relating to the objects has been an important aspect of the troupe’s artistic journey. Things are sometimes utilized as symbols, sometimes as themselves, and they are distorted and transformed from scene to scene. With the help of objects, different scales emerge that fool the eye almost cinematically – a world that balances between dream and reality.

After having admired each others’ work for a long time, the two well-known companies Focus and Chaliwaté began collaborating in 2016. They realized that they shared some exciting common ground in terms of poetic esthetics and their relationships to the crafts of performative art. Both groups were anxious to combine various theatrical forms, such as physical theatre, the theatre of objects, puppetry, acting and video. With Dimanche they succeed in creating an unusually strong visual language. By carefully focusing on the most minute of details, on the commonplace and the intimate, they hope to reach the universal.

Dimanche was awarded two Maeterlinck prizes in Belgium in 2020, one for best performance and one for best artistic and technical production. Backup (a shortened version of Dimanche) received The Total Theatre Award at the 2019 Fringe Festival in Edinburgh.

Written and directed by: Julie Tenret, Sicaire Durieux, Sandrine Heyraud
Performers: Sandrine Heyraud, Julie Dacquin and Sicaire Durieux
Technicians: Léonard Clarys, Charlotte Persoons and David Alonso Morillo
Dramaturgy: Alana Osbourne
Scenography by: Zoé Tenret
Stage set construction: Zoé Tenret, Bruno Mortaignie (LS Diffusion), Sébastien Boucherit and Sebastien Munck
Puppets created by: Waw ! Studios / Joachim Jannin et Jean-Raymond Brassinne
Puppet assistant creators: Emmanuel Chessa, Aurélie Deloche and Gaëlle Marras
Light: Guillaume Toussaint Fromentin
Sound: Brice Cannavo
Video by: Tristan Galand 1st AC: Alexandre Cabanne Key Grip: Hatuey Suarez
Underwater filming: Alexandra Brixy TV news filming: Tom Gineyts
Post-production videos: Paul Jadoul
Video set construction: Zoé Tenret and Sébastien Munck
Video sound: Jeff Levillain (Studio Chocolat-noisette) and Roland Voglaire (Boxon Studio)
Costumes: Fanny Boizard General
Stage Management: Leonard Clarys, Isabelle Derr, Hugues Girard, Nicolas Ghion, David Alonso Morillo, Charlotte Persoons or Lian Van De Putte
Tour Manager Chiara Christoffersen

Represented by Aurora Nova

“Dimanche” has no spoken dialogue and no subtitles.