Nos Amours Bêtes

Premiere at the Théâtre Am Stram Gram in Geneva on February 18, 2013

In all cultures, fables such as Beauty and the Beast feature animal fiancés to teach us about our bonds, our attachments, our sense of belonging, and the constraints of our appearance. What is beautiful? What makes us love? When I look at it with my eyes, is the crippled, the ugly, the monstrous, the disfigured found among animals or among humans? How can we see it to the point of loving it, beyond its appearance? How can we see beneath it?

Writer Fabrice Melquiot and Ambra Senatore drew inspiration for this show from a rare tale from Iceland: The Seal’s Skin.

The story takes place on a beach in Myraldur. Or is it in a playground? Fabrice Melquiot and Ambra Senatore have had a field day telling this popular Icelandic tale: under their direction, the five performers treat the stage as a playground where anything goes, between games of “1, 2, 3 sun,” riddles, forfeits, challenges, and musical chairs. Between bursts of laughter, they deliver the disturbing story of The Seal Skin in small doses… In these children’s games hijacked by adults, the story unfolds as the show progresses. Humans and animals cross paths and transform in a beautiful metaphor for love beyond appearances.

With her role-playing, impromptu confrontations, and oblique view of our attitudes and postures, Ambra Senatore delicately crafts a playful dance, full of humor and lightness, but which also preserves moments of pure grace or tender strangeness.

This is her first collaboration on stage with a writer, a challenge she takes up to the delight of the audience. A dance for everyone, nourished by theatricality, everyday actions and gestures, sprinkled with clues whose meaning is gradually revealed, in connection with the writer’s words. A piece that doesn’t take itself seriously, joyful, light and lively, to better speak to us about the choices we make… and what we leave behind.