Cyborg Cabaret, an exotic show from elsewhere

It was the weekend of April 14 in Amsterdam. The 3rd edition of the Jardin rouge international festival offered experimental shows that seemed to come from another galaxy. There were international artists there who offered a range of more or less confusing disciplines: contemporary dance, mime, musical or object theatre, puppets, clowns, schlager punk, brass band, etc. In short, a beautiful and joyful hustle and bustle that reminded us of a certain Berlin atmosphere of the late 1970s. A veritable multidisciplinary laboratory that was not lacking in creativity. Mysterious energy of this fragmented spectacle. What especially caught our attention and condensed our emotions were the performances of the artistic collective Snowapple.

This group imposes itself immediately by the presence of its Dutch singer and multi-instrumentalist Laurien Schreuder. You have to have seen this phenomenon at least once to never forget it. Surrounded by contortionist dancer Joséphine Terme - what a spider! -, guitarist Matteo Cerboncini, dancer and singer Caroline Martin, Laurien Schreuder, long enigmatic woman with supposed coldness, immediately hypnotizes the public. She is the woman in black from elsewhere: ash hair, made up as if she came out of an Avatar scene, which in no way detracts from her natural and singular beauty. And then this overwhelming voice with an astonishing palette.

Laurien, who studied singing and mime, gesture theater in the Netherlands and Los Angeles, is the artistic director of the collective. How to present it? Like this: "'She won't tell you a story tonight. Don't be mad at her. She is no longer of your species. She is stepping aside. The illusion of self is gone. " Odd ? Strange, isn't it? And very captivating. All on a music that she composes and which would resemble lyrical cold wave. On stage, she switches from guitar to clarinet or bass or contrabass sax.

The show is called Cyborg Cabaret, and this ever-evolving futuristic cabaret is written and directed by Eva Schumacher. He proposes a program where temporalities mix and where the anachronism takes the place of a calendar. In any case, it cogitates on the board. You come across everything in a world where the bodies would be independent of the mind, where the characters would be unreal and magnetic, hybrids. A slightly surreal smell emanates from the scene. You have to let yourself be carried away, leave the shore, invitation, luff for luff, to travel.

This Cyborg Cabaret arrives in Paris from June 1 for five nights as part of the Phénix Festival. Dare this Cabaret, it will surprise you. If the new scene is the art of bringing sensations and emotions into a structure that has a bit of the grace of a piece of music or an acrobat's number, then the Snowapple collective is a reference. “ The cyborg allows us to open a door to other ways of being ourselves, to act on the world around us, to seek to play with norms, constraints and reality”, says Eva Schumacher mysteriously. . You won't see this every four mornings.

Cyborg Cabaret, at Le Truc, 17, rue Ferdinand-Léger (Paris 20th), on June 1, 11, 15, 17 and 18. Such. : 06 30 72 79 83.