music theater after the book “The Hatred of music” by Pascal Quignard
[English title: EARS HAVE NO LIDS AS IT HAPPENS]
CREATION on 18 July 2014 at Avignon Festival (in) (France)
with Pierre Baux (actor) and Garth Knox (musician, viola)
conception, music, dramaturgy and stage direction Benjamin Dupé | text after the book The Hatred of Music (La Haine de la musique) by Pascal Quignard
stage design Olivier Thomas | IRCAM software development Manuel Poletti | lights Christophe Forey | sound manager Julien Frénois
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Performed by one actor and one musician, Ears have no lids as it happens is a polyphony weaving Pascal Quignard’s words with an original musical composition. Confronting the concert with a reflexion on music, this show oscillates between hearing and understanding. Far from being purely conceptual, the process of “feedback” between an artistic material and the thought studying it becomes a playful mechanics. It generates interferences, reactivity, distance, humour, vertigo, enthusiasm, multiplying power… The musical architecture answers the depth of the text which is a scholarly and sensitive one. The stunning form, between meditation, lecture, political discourse, tale and confession is echoed by virtuosity and the capacity sound has to instantly change itself. To the author’s hypothesis of disenchantment, evoked by the title La Haine de la musique (The Hatred of Music) is given the only possible answer for a composer : make sound, that is move the audience in their inner selves. For, “as it happens, ears have no lids”, says the author…
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Production: Comme je l’entends, les productions. Coproduction: SACD / Festival d’Avignon within the framework of ‘Sujets à Vif’, supported by CENTQUATRE-PARIS and Gmem Marseille.
Supports: Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur – Aide à la création, Conseil Général des Bouches-du-Rhône, Ville de Marseille, Adami, Spedidam, Sacem.
© Agnès Mellon
> Have a look at the other version, a show with string quartet designed for big stages
photos © Agnès Mellon