James Thiérrée: Raoul

Raoul PIC CREDIT Richard Haughton

THEATRE: FRANCE

“Intimate, profound and intensely poetic.” The Financial Times

One of Europe’s most extraordinary performance artists, James Thiérrée, returns to Wellington with his new solo show, Raoul. Born into vaudeville royalty, Thiérrée has been performing since the age of four, and has a unique ability to turn everyday events into moments of wonder.

Set against an otherworldly backdrop, Raoul employs mime, clowning, magic and acrobatics in a largely wordless performance. Portraying a lonely hermit and his demons, Thiérrée creates what New York magazine describes as “an unforgettable cirque du solitaire, thrilling, hilarious, terrifying, and mysterious, but never obscure”.

Thiérrée’s Bright Abyss, with its spectacular scenes of a dark and dreamlike world, was a hit of the 2006 New Zealand International Arts Festival, with critics calling it physical theatre at its most extraordinary. His Junebug Symphony, which premiered at the Festival in 2004, won four Molière Awards.

Thiérrée grew up in the French circus founded by his parents, pioneers of the ‘new circus’ movement. As a child, he made his film debut as Ariel in Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books.

At once funny, poignant and beguiling, Raoul explores issues of identity and existence and has been compared to the works of Beckett. As the artist says: “I like the sense that as life wears us down we become more real.”

Raoul is at the St James Theatre from 14 to 18 March for the 2012 New Zealand International Arts Festival, Wellington, 24 February – 18 March. Tickets $18 – $83 available from Ticketek.

ENDS

Sponsored by Minter Ellison Rudd Watts Lawyers

With support from the Embassy of France

© Scoop Media