Mon conte de feu – À vélo entre les bombes qui tombent

Part of the Café-causerie : Budding Creations! event
Cultural mediation activity, 10 years +

 

Part of the Café-causerie: Budding creations! event in person and live online.

Four theatre companies present their works-in-progress and answer questions from the public eager to learn more about the various stages involved in the development of a puppet show.

 

Mon conte de feu – À vélo entre les bombes qui tombent

Canadian master puppeteer Felix Mirbt was our mentor. When he died in 2002, he left behind a great many puppets, a radical approach to manipulation and a fascinating diary. In just a few pages, his diary chronicles the incredible bicycle trip he took with his father in 1945 in his native Germany, which was on the verge of collapsing under a hail of bombs. . .

“In 1945, when he was only 13 years old, Felix Mirbt cycled through Germany with his father. He carried in his saddlebag: three and a half million marks, a sandwich and a small pistol.”

In French

Running time: 60 minutes
Target audience: à partir de 8 ans
Techniques: object theatre, puppets and shadow theatre

Photos

Photos: Émilie Grosset

Company

La Pire Espèce is a brotherhood of merry demiurges, artisans of the extraordinary who are firm believers in hybrids and interminglings. Inspired by the art of clowns, by fairground barkers and puppeteers, its theatre combines raw materials with unbridled imagination, baroque plenitude with surgical precision.

Since 1999, Théâtre de la Pire Espèce has been borrowing techniques from different disciplines such as puppetry, object theatre, clowning, cabaret and street theatre. Impertinent, festive and sometimes scholarly despite itself, the company’s approach to theatre combines raw materials with unbridled imagination, baroque plenitude with surgical precision. The company bypasses theatrical illusion, revisits stage conventions and the rules of dramatic narration, and seeks to establish a close connection with the audience..

Credits

Story and stage direction: Francis Monty
Artistic collaboration: Olivier Ducas 
Artistic collaboration and performance: Marcelle Hudon
Performance: Anne-Marie Levasseur et Marie-Ève Trudel
Puppets: Felix Mirbt et Marcelle Hudon
Stage, costume and prop design: Julie Vallée-Léger
Dramaturgy advisor: Jonathan Cusson
Assistant, stage direction, and stage management: Martine Richard et Julie Brosseau-Doré
Lighting design and stage management: Thomas Godefroid

Théâtre de la Pire Espèce wishes to thank the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Conseil des arts de Montréal for their support.