Concept and Direction - VICTORIA THIERE-CHAPLIN
Performers - AURELIA THIERE, Jamie Martinez, Antonin Morel
Chief director - Francois Hubert
Scenery - VICTORIA THIERE-CHAPLIN
Costumes: Véronique Grand, Jacques Perdiges, Monica Schwarzl and VICTORIA THIERE-CHAPLIN
Choreography - VICTORIA THIERE-CHAPLIN and Armando Santen
Sound - Samuel Montoya-Perez
Head staged by Antoine Gianforcaro
Costume designer - Sophie Bellin
Props - Brian Servetnik
Tour Administrator - Didier Bendel
Producers: Theater de Carouge - Atelier de Geneve / Theaters of the City of Luxembourg / Elbeuf Circus Theatre / La Cursive - State Theater of La Rochelle / Grand Theater of Provence (Aix-en-Provence) / State Theater of the City of Senard / Theater of the Archipelago (Perpignan) and Performing Arts Center<<Эль Каналь>> (Salte - Girona) - Transfrontier Catalan Theater (ECT - SCT) / Theater of the City of Caen / Municipality of San Quintin (Picardy) / La Rive Gauche - dance stage / Theater of Villefranche (69) / Proscenium - Colomb / Crying Out Loud - London
Duration - 1 hour 20 minutes without intermission
For persons over 12 years
Little watch company will present at the Platonov Festival the play "Whisper of the Walls" staged by Victoria Thiere-Chaplin. He will play one of the roles in it Aurelia Thiers. In this performance, the heroine manages to escape from prison. She climbs the facades of abandoned buildings, looks into empty apartments, becomes a hostage to the "whisper of the walls", which immerse her in other people's stories, convey to her fragments of other people's lives.
Aurelia will be accompanied on her journey by two more performers. All three of them are very human. But she will be next to other "creatures", sometimes suspicious, sometimes wonderful...
To our delight, during the performance, the characters will move in these amazing and unpredictable story worlds that have become the hallmark of Victoria Thiere-Chaplin.
“The Chaplin-Thiere family has such strong genes, external and creative similarities that this brilliant family, brought up on burlesque, always creates special, touching, amazing and distant creations. Now it's the turn of the play "Whisper of the Walls", immersing us in the strange, quivering and poetic inner world of the character. This creature, in whose gaze one can read amazement and naivety, makes objects come to life, makes walls talk, turns cardboard into monsters ... Thanks to her, the walls acquire history. Aurelia, with the help of witty scenery and anonymous assistants, reveals the secrets of the walls to us, she does it very gracefully.<…>Aurelia again gives us a performance where burlesque, circus skills and dance coexist. This is a harmonious action that combines spiritual purity, freshness and creativity.”
Victoria Thiers - Chaplin
In 1970, Victoria Chaplin met the actor and director Jean-Baptiste Thiers, who dreamed of an alternative circus and created his Cirque Bonjour. In 1971, Cirque Bonjour was invited to participate in the Avignon Festival, and then began its first tour of France. The circus went on tour with Victoria.
Victoria and Jean-Baptiste Thiers together come to a very special, their own understanding of the circus. As a result, they create an "Imaginary Circus" - only themselves and their children, Aurelia and James, perform on its stage. With the "Imaginary Circus", and later with the "Invisible Circus", the family traveled all over the world. In 2003, Victoria Thiere - Chaplin and her daughter Aurelia created the play "Aurelia's Oratorio".
Aurelia Thiers on stage since childhood. She constantly plays in the performances of her parents Victoria and Jean-Baptiste: "Imaginary Circus" and "Invisible Circus". Aurelia Thiera had a chance to work with such film directors as Milos Forman, Colin Cerro, Jacques Barratier.
For a long time Aurelia toured the world with the legendary London troupe "The Tiger Lillies" in The Tiger Lillies Circus, she also worked in Berlin in a cabaret and a Berlin music hall.
Since 2003, Aurelia Thiers has been playing in the play Aurelia's Oratorio, staged by her mother, Victoria Thiers-Chaplin, which has already been played on world theater stages more than a hundred times.
Jamie Martinez
Martinez was born in the capital of Puerto Rico, San Juan, and he grew up in the city of Columbia (South Carolina, USA). Here he studied acting with Ann Brody and Naomi Calvert. He continued his studies at the North Carolina School of the Arts and then with the New York theater company American Dance Machine. In 1985, Jamie Martinez became one of the founders of the theater company Parsons Dance Company, after which David Parsons created roles for him for another 15 years.
Martinez has held over 400 master classes, many of which were held under the auspices of the famous Julliard School.
He is the recipient of the York Dance and Performance Bessie Award.
Antonin Morel
Since 1986, Antonin has been working in collaboration with Jérôme Savary, at various times he played in the performances of Joseph Bouglion, Circatomic, Philippe Decoufle.
His first solo performance was in 2005 in a production of Cazino à l'Européen, excerpts from which he showed at Jamel Debbouze's Comédie Club.
In the movie, Morel played with Jeanne Labrune, Mayvin Le Besco and Marc Caro.
He wrote the music for the 1992 Albertville Olympics, the music for William Klein's Le Geste sport, and many themes for Canal+'s The Eye of the Cyclone. In 1997, he took part in the recording of Alain Baschung's album "Fantaisie militaire" and wrote a musical passage for the recreation of the Parisian cabaret Crazy Horse Saloon by Philippe Decoufle.
In 1994, Antonin founded the troupe Clowns Without Borders.
Little watch company was founded in 1986 by Frederic Bessy. Frédéric Rousseau joined him in 2000, Caroline Jude in 2009, and Sonia Da Cruz and Clemence Droit in 2011.
The company was conceived as a kind of "home" where artists of different genres (directors, choreographers, puppeteers...) could bring their projects to life at the highest level thanks to artistic, technical and financial support.
The company is proud to collaborate with such artists as Victoria Thier-Chaplin and Aurelia Thier, Luc Bondy, Bartabas, Christian Lupa, Arpad Schilling and others.
The company "Little Clock" is a partner of major cultural organizations and projects around the world, such as the Vidy-Lausanne Theatre, the Bobigny Cultural Center; Theater de la Ville in Paris, the Royal Theater in Namur, the Chekhov International Theater Festival and many others. 
Charlie Chaplin's grandson James Tierre, a permanent participant of the Chekhov Festival, brought his new play "The Frog Was Right" to Moscow. A phantasmagorical production at the intersection of drama, acrobatics and pantomime, in which Thierry acted as a director, set designer, composer and performer at the same time, tells about an underground creature who trusted a person and was deceived.
After the premiere on June 26, James Thierre told the site why he often comes to Russia, remembered his first meeting with a frog and explained why stories should not be told in the theater.
James Thierret, son of Victoria Chaplin and Jean-Baptiste Thierret, started out in the circus arena. His parents are considered one of the inspirers of the "New Circus" - a movement that combines drama, theater and traditional circus genres in the arena.
In 1998, Tierre decided to continue the work of his parents and founded the Maybug Company (Maybug is the actor's childhood nickname given to him by his parents). His first performance in the New Circus genre was called Maybug Symphony. He was awarded four "Moliere" - the highest theatrical prize in France.
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That we don't understand anything
Better don't ask me what this story is about. I think that everyone for himself will determine both the meaning and the plot. Many are surprised: why is the frog red? So, this is a mystery. Let this be our secret.
The more performances I make, the less I understand and the less the audience should understand what exactly is at stake. This is also the beauty and magic of the theater: we create poetry, we offer to go on an adventure of your imagination and our riddles. I think it's the magic of the theatre. In the cinema, as for me, there is no such thing - they just tell some kind of story.
I don't want to tell stories. I want to play with the theme, with the imagination, but definitely not go into stories.
Even if you have gray hair you think you understand life very well and don't believe in fairy tales, sometimes you have to allow yourself a moment of spontaneity that will take you to another reality. You will say that there is only deceit in the performances? But theater is real. Even too real.
About madness and about working with wood
I've been preparing this performance for about a year, from the moment the idea came up to its full implementation. We had three months of extremely intensive rehearsals. In general, I realized that this is a huge delusion - to get hung up on whether the viewer will understand what the performance is about. Here you need not so much to understand as to feel.
Life is much crazier than my performances. Inspiration, ideas? They all come from life. Many things influenced me: my family, my childhood, the circus... I came out of a strong traditional theater school. And it's time to show what I can do.
It's like working with wood. When a child watches his father, who cuts some little thing out of an ordinary piece of wood, he smells the tree, touches it, remembers the moment. And then he grows up and repeats the same thing, he also starts working with wood. But in your own way.
About the scenery that the child made
We brought this huge machine to Moscow and it stopped working. And this is, in fact, the central object on the stage, the most important element. Of course we fixed everything. But this is a very fragile mechanism, everything works on manual control, no computers.
It's like a child who would invent a toy. Big, just a giant toy, with long threads, a spiral staircase, glowing wires, triangular bowls and more. You look at it and think: it’s all really, as if it was designed by a kid.
In general, this car is like a separate hero of the play. This is a talisman, and a god, and a prison. It seems to me that the viewer himself determines what it means to him.
On the attitude of Russians to the theater
A performance in Russia is a challenge every time. I noticed that Russians take theater very seriously. And because of this, I have more responsibility. In Russia, I always have to be head and shoulders above myself. Maybe that's part of the reason I keep coming back here.
In France, in my opinion, the main thing in staging is fullness, some intellectual element. This is not enough for the Russian audience, they need to feel everything. The performance must be very strong. Russians always talk about the theater very thoughtfully.
"Well, let's go to the theater? Maybe yes, maybe no ..." You can say that everywhere, but not here. According to my feelings, in Russia people seem to have to, well, they simply have to see the performance. They love it or hate it, it doesn't matter. It will be a very deep, inner reaction.
Theater in Russia is a beloved. Yes, there is politics, there is religion, but the theater has one of the first roles.
About borscht and body language
It is impossible to predict the reaction to my performances. Every country is different. In one hall it can die of laughter, in another it can only smile. By the way, they always laugh at different moments, you can’t guess here either. It all depends on the people and the country. We hear everything very well from the stage. One actor once asked me: "They don't laugh. Okay, don't they like it?" I explained about this difference of perception. This really happens.
I have my own language in the performance - this is the language of the body. Sometimes, of course, words slip through. For example, we speak a little Russian. We learned the word "thank you" immediately. But words, in fact, are not needed. You will understand us anyway.
In Moscow, I like to eat borscht and go for walks. True, now the city center is being repaired, walking is a little problematic. But be careful, you can. For me, the people who sit opposite us in the hall are much more important. It was worth going back for them.
About father's SMS and fairy tales
I know that in Russia there are a lot of fairy tales about frogs. They turn into princesses, princes, give advice. It's such a magical creature. And very wise. So maybe the frog knows what my play is about.
I think all of you heard at least one fairy tale about a frog in childhood. I didn't want to pick any particular frog. It is much more important to convey this atmosphere of something fabulous.
I thought a lot about the name of the play. And somehow I remembered one funny story from my childhood. I was five years old, we were returning from a long trip with the circus. I remember my parents left to carry the suitcases from the car home, and I remained standing on the road. I stood there for an hour. The houses were already starting to worry about where I was. And I just found a frog and talked to it. When he returned home, he said: "The frog told me so much! And she also said that I don't know anything about life."
We don't really know anything about our life.. Remember how in "Game of Thrones"? "You don't know anything, Jon Snow!"
When I do something crazy, incomprehensible, absurd, Dad sends me one simple message: "James, the frog was right."
In fact, James Thierree (James Thierree, born May 2, 1974) really does not like it when they mention that he is the grandson of a great comedian. "Everyone has parents, grandparents, and we take something from each of them. But in my case, it's always Chaplin, Chaplin, Chaplin," James is upset.
But he not only has an obvious resemblance to his grandfather - he has the same Chaplin-like mane of curly (now "salt and pepper") hair and eyes of a soft, blue-gray hue, besides, James inherited his talent masterfully own your body.
Raoul par James Thierree. Photo by C. Calais.
James Thierre is an acrobat, mime, artist, director, violinist and dancer.
James and Charlie: curls and eye color were inherited))
And Charlie Chaplin was not only an excellent actor, mime, acrobat and director of his own films, he also wrote music for them, taught himself to play the violin and piano.
Ch. Chaplin (on the right, with a violin - suddenly, who does not recognize the actor without a mustache and lined eyes)
James Thierre in "On My Own"
Well, Chaplin moved so accurately that Vaslav Nijinsky himself, that he is a born dancer.
Here, for example, is a small excerpt from the film "Modern Times", where Chaplin is roller-skating near the abyss.
Thierre said in an interview: "I see that everyone is constantly comparing us, but this has never affected me. My profession is my choice. Otherwise, I would never do it. I constantly feel that I have to prove myself ".
photo Richard Haughton
Did James have a choice of profession?
Already at the age of four, James Thierre, along with his three-year-old sister Aurelia, toured with his parents, portraying a suitcase with legs in the show. Their father Jean-Baptiste Thierre and mother Victoria Chaplin founded their own circus in the late 1970s. Le Cirque Invisible, which is very different from the classical one - with its inapplicable sawdust and trained animals.
Jean-Baptiste Thierret and Victoria Chaplin
“My mother, Victoria, has a very romantic history. She was eighteen, she lived with my grandparents, Charlie and Una, in Vevey, near Lausanne, and took dancing lessons. My grandfather (Charlie Chaplin) planned to star in her new film The Freak.
Charlie Chaplin and Victoria are preparing for the filming of The Freak.
Victoria Chaplin
My father (a French actor who starred in films with Alain Resnais and Federico Fellini) saw the article and wrote to her saying that he was going to create a new kind of circus.
Jean Baptiste Thierry
My mother answered him. He went to Lausanne and they met in secret because she knew that Charlie and Una would be against him. Then she and my father ran away. My mother, who was about the same age as Una when she married Charlie, was very beautiful, with huge gray-blue eyes and fair skin. She is fifty-five and still looks the same. A Freak it was never taken down."
The children of Victoria and Jean-Baptiste were taught by home teachers, but when James was twelve he went to Paris to an American school, where he improved his English. “Most of the kids at school were the kids of diplomats,” he said. “I was the son of a clown. You know how vicious kids can be. We were outsiders, outcasts. Traveling constantly from place to place taught us instability. was: we looked at our parents at work."
In addition, James trained as an actor in a great Piccolo Teatro di Milano, studied at the Harvard Theater School and at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Paris.
Handsome James acted in films several times.
Here are some interesting projects in which he has been seen:
At the age of fifteen, Tierre played Ariel with Peter Greenaway in the beautiful film The Books of Prospero, where his acrobatic skills came in handy
In the film "Vatel" - he played a small role of the Duke de Longueville,
per film Twice upon a Time In 2006 he was nominated for the Cesar Award as the most promising actor.
In the film directed by gypsy origin Tony Gatlif "On my own" ( Korkoro, 2009) Thierry played a gypsy named Talos. The role turned out to be very bright, because Talosh has the mind of a child and looks at the world with naive eyes. A very beautiful film, but the plot, which tells about the fate of gypsies in Nazi-occupied France, does not imply easy viewing. By the way, it recently turned out that Chaplin also had gypsy roots, so we can say: James was called to this film by blood))
But James is known not for this, but for this:
In 1998, Thierre founded his own theater company La Compagnie Du Hanneton, on the stage of which he staged several performances that received excellent reviews from critics and brought him four Molière awards. The style of these shows is a mixture of pantomime and acrobatics.
- La Symphonie du Hanneton
- La Veillee des Abysses, 2003
- Au Revoir Parapluie, 2007 (by the way, he was brought to Moscow)
- Raoul, 2009 (costumes for this performance and many others staged by La Compagnie Du Hanneton created by James's mother Victoria)
Premiere of a new production Tabac Rouge waiting for summer 2013
This scene was invented by Thierre himself. Cutting your beard using a pendulum clock instead of a mirror - sorry, James, very Chaplin!
Well, for those who are interested in the work of this actor, there is great news - you can see his play "Raul" on the stage of the Moscow City Council Theater(Moscow) as part of the XI International Theater Festival. A.P. Chekhov 2013! Performance dates: 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25 May.
Eyewitnesses say that his live performances make a grand impression. So, we are waiting.
And further. In the comments she wrote to me ollia_lukoye that another representative of the Chaplin dynasty, Aurelia Thiers-Chaplin, daughter of Victoria Chaplin and sister of James, will also perform in the program of the 11th Chekhov Festival.
The performance is called "Whisper of the Walls", the idea and direction - Victoria Chaplin. 3, 4 and 5 June in the theater. Pushkin on Tverskoy Boulevard.
James Tierre photographed by Paolo Roversi
Below you can watch the performances in their entirety online, there is something magical in them - you start watching and you can't tear yourself away.
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Chest of drawers on stage. An arm protrudes from one box, a leg from another. The hand takes out a shoe, puts on a foot, then another. The other hand from another drawer takes out a glass, a candle, brings fire, from the third drawer, it seems, already the third hand takes out a little black dress, a hat. All this happens slowly, in detail and goes under an excited monologue of a male voice on the phone, begging to pick up the phone, listen, understand ...
The woman emerges from the dresser already dressed: red shoes, black dress. A red scarf stretches behind her, turns into a hammock, a swing, she swings on them, rising higher and higher above the stage. Red velvet draperies on the sides of the stage - background, frame. In this cabaret for two (he will soon appear, lop-eared, plastic) - from room to room the story of a man and a woman unfolds: he is looking for her, she - herself.
One of the amazing inventive simplicity of the numbers: a winter dream about a monster: white tulle, silhouettes of magical creatures, snow. With truly Gallic sharp humor, a “dialogue” of red draperies is built: large and small; black and white tango of a man and a woman merged into one suit; a scene of animated dolls attacking the heroine.
"Aurelia's Oratorio" by Aurelia Thiers and "Goodbye Umbrella!" James Thiere - performances by the grandchildren of Charlie Chaplin. And although they do not want to comment on this relationship, which is a separate paragraph in the contract, and although they have long considered themselves self-sufficient (“What does grandfather have to do with it ?!”), blood, as the classic wrote, is a great thing.
This she, the red mercury of the great Charlie, teaches to extract laughter from the air, literally from nothing, from an optional combination of elements, turns a set of tricks into a range of feelings, gives flexibility, a variety of talents and charm. In addition, James and Aurelia are the children of Jean-Baptiste Thiers and Victoria Chaplin, an artistic couple who created one of the most subtle and touching circus groups, whose performance was among the first shown at the Chekhov Festival, called "The Invisible Circus", and they began to learn circus art since the age of four.
But if parents turn to the most invariable in the public - children's passion for miracles, their children, having inherited the entire palette of circus skills, appeal to the minds of adults. The performances of brother and sister are indeed created by Chaplin's heirs, but heirs living in a completely different world, hard, touched by the futility and hollow tragedy of postmodernism.
"Farewell, Umbrella" by James Thiere - a chain of metamorphoses, held together only by the dual personality of a dreamer, the free movement of the circus theater as a game of images.
The staircase, armed with scythes on the sides, transforms into an ominous chariot, a huge brush of ropes and a giant escalator hook become hieroglyphs describing reality. In a ghostly field of golden brooms, the hero is surrounded by geisha and dryads, locusts devour him, his head with dusty brains is repaired by a mad mechanic. A wonderful move - the hero speaks to the world with a scandalously dramatic violin voice. Red umbrella, dream of clarity, unattainable.
“We saw something similar in childhood,” some viewers told me after the performance. In my opinion, this is an aberration, a distortion of memory. Although the “Circus on Stage” was a special direction in the art of Soviet times, and virtuosos appeared on the stage in that era: jugglers, magicians, acrobats, trainers of small animals, current performances are completely different.
The new French circus - namely, it is presented by a separate program of the Chekhov Festival - is completely different. All traditional skills are used here - from acrobatics to choreography, and all the latest - video, computer graphics, modern mechanics. The main thing in it is not a set of individual numbers, but a story, a parable told in the language of gesture and image, in essence, a poetic interpretation of existence. After all, poetry in the circus is almost always a philosophy of life. Apparently, that is why, when the new direction began to gain momentum, the French circuses from the Department of Agriculture were transferred to the Ministry of Culture.
And yet, the performances of brother and sister Thiers are not all-human, like the "Invisible Circus" of their parents; often it seems that mastery surrounds the void; in their construction there is no core, center, that which is exhausted by the old-fashioned concept of "soul". The little man of Charlie Chaplin wandered along the roads of loneliness, causing laughter and compassion; the works of his descendants (after all, they were born in the era of total visualization) are, first of all, a beautiful picture to the point of intrinsic value, born not so much of the experience of the spirit as of the practice of modern transformations.
On May 17, a press conference was held at the Marriott Hotel, the main person of which was the general director of the festival, Valery Shadrin.
The Chekhov Festival is held every two years, and this year marks the 20th anniversary of its birth. Over the years, the festival has gained a reputation as the most respected and large-scale forum in Russia. And not only in Russia. International respect is evidenced by the composition of the guests present at the press conference - the ambassadors of Israel, Canada and France, representatives of the embassies of Germany, the USA, Taiwan, Great Britain. Before giving the floor to the guests, Valery Shadrin explained to journalists what and how the program is formed, looked into the past of the festival, remembered the “first signs”, mentioned all the masters, all the teams that were the first to respond to his initiative. “The program is born in contacts, from our common desire to preserve theater and culture. The motto of the Italian director Giorgio Strehler "Theater for the people" is still relevant. Therefore, we have put together a program that will be of interest to both true theatergoers and a wide range of viewers. The show attracts the audience. And we depend on the public. After all, there is not only a creative, but also an economic side of the issue. We receive one third of the funds from the Ministry of Culture, one third from the Moscow government, and the rest is our revenue.”
By the way, the poster of the festival is almost completely known, tickets for many performances are already on sale.
According to Valery Shadrin, the Chekhov Festival gives preference to new experimental productions that dominate contemporary theatrical art. Most of the performances are based on circus elements and modern dances. The audience will see performances by Joseph Naj, Emmanuel Demarcy-Mot, LIN Hwai-min and new works by Robert Lepage, Matthew Bourne and others.
The performance "Raoul", which opens the festival, was staged by James Thiere (grandson of Charlie Chaplin). Critics speak of him as the inventor of the otherworldly theatrical world, physical and animal. He is a mime, acrobat, clown, dancer, magician, violinist. James owes all theatrical skills to his parents, who introduced him to his own performances "Imaginary Circus" and "Invisible Circus". Having staged his first performance, The Maybug Symphony, James became a celebrity.
About the new play "Raul" at a press conference, James Thiers said just a few words: "I don't like to explain my performances. The theater explains everything itself. I am glad that "Raul" opens the festival. My performance is a celebration that glorifies theater as an eternal art. I have already been to Moscow. The romance with the Russian audience began with the play “Goodbye, Umbrella”, that's when I realized what a receptive audience you have. There is no such audience anywhere in the world. Thank you". There is another member of the Chaplin family in the festival poster - granddaughter Aurelia Thiers, who will present the play "Whisper of the Walls" staged by her mother Victoria Thiers-Chaplin, the daughter of the great comedian. And if Raul, that is, James, will fly over the stage, play the violin, meet fish, insects and elephants, then the world built by his sister is very far from reality and does not fit into the framework of any theatrical genre. She is a magician and puppeteer who creates a space from the scenery that comes to life.
The festival will run until July 14th. The program is conditionally divided into three parts: the world series, the program of Moscow theaters "In Memory of Pyotr Naumovich Fomenko" and the regional one - "Performances of the XI ITF im. Chekhov and international projects of the Chekhov Festival in the cities of Russia and Riga.
Read more in the section "Culture Today" (screen and stage).
