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Inspired by the writings of transcendental philosopher Henry David Thoreau and the two years he spent living by Walden Pond, RE: Walden melds theater, music, live performance, and large-scale video projection. Images from Walden Pond overlap with sound and text in an integrated experience that joins an intricate automated orchestra playing with the live piano score, a single performer, and interactive video. Using voice and movement, the performer influences, triggers, and interacts with the complex web of sonic and visual elements at play to create a multi-layered interpretation of Thoreau’s revolutionary musings of Walden Pond. Directed by Jean-François Peyret, this project brings together a stellar group of collaborative artists, many of whom have never been presented in the United States.

Curator: Hélène Lesterlin

Bio:

Director Jean-François Peyret’s work uses theater to imagine reveries around the living and artificial, bodies and machines, and variations on the theme of man’s technical destiny. His works often spring from the writings of philosophers and scientists. His most recent performances include Le cas de Sophie K., based on the life of Russian mathematician Sophie Kovalevskaïa, Tournant autour de Galilée, on which he collaborated with Françoise Balibar and Alain Prochiantz, and Ex vivo/in vitro. Between 1982 and 1994 he collaborated with Jean Jourdheuil on the creation of more than 15 shows, using non-dramatic texts by writers such as Montaigne or Lucrèce, and exploring the work of Heiner Müller. He then created a cycle of theater pieces at the MC93 in Bobigny based on characters and people such as Faust, Ovid, Alan Turing, and Charles Darwin.

Credits:

Director: Jean-François Peyret
Composer: Alexandros Markeas
Architect: Jean Nouvel
Video: Pierre Nouvel
Technical Direction: Thierry Coduys

LIMSI-CNRS
coproduction: tf2 compagnie Jean-François Peyret - Le Fresnoy Studio national des arts contemporains - avec le soutien de l'EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) du Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, du Théâtre Paris-Villette, du manège.mons/CECN, de NUMEDIEART, du LIMSI-CNRS et des AJN (Ateliers Jean Nouvel), ESAM (Caen), FIJAD (ERAC). Avec l'aide du DICRéAM et de la DRAC Ile de France.

RE: Walden was supported via a production residency at EMPAC made possible with the support of Etant donnés: The French-American Fund for the Performing Arts, a program of FACE.