Concept and credits

The idea for the piece comes from a desire to create a performance that brings together dancers and actors. I quickly find the material for the piece: pop songs. Indeed, songs have the double advantage of combining two modes of expression: text (linked to actors) and music (linked to dancers). Formally, the piece follows the same principle as one of my previous productions, Shirtology, but instead of T-shirts, it is the titles of famous pop songs that dictate to the performers what they must do.

For this piece, I ask myself how theater can survive in the face of powerful media such as television, cinema and, above all, the internet, which has emerged recently.
The piece is self-reflective, as it depicts the unfolding and expectations of a performance, gradually subverting them through subtle shifts and then through scenes that go beyond the boundaries of theatrical performance.
I am, in fact, conflicted between my fascination with the art of theater and my distrust of representation, and, more specifically, of the spectacular and entertainment.
This is why the piece confronts the performers with the cultural industry, symbolized by standardized pop songs. But fortunately, each of these individuals possesses an irreducible singularity that resists the grip of the dominant power.
That is why, in the final analysis, the show must go on!

Concept
Jérôme Bel
Assistants
Frédéric Seguette, Olga de Soto
Casting
Jérôme Bel, Barbara Van Lindt
Original cast
Sonja Augart, Nicole Beutler, Olivier Casamayou, Germana Civera, Herman Diephuis, Juan Dominguez, Dina Ed Dik, Marie-Louise Gilcher, Claire Haenni, Benoit Izard, Cuqui Jerez, Aldo Lee, Eva Meyer-Keller, Ion Munduate, Henrique Neves, Gisèle Pelozuelo, Carlos Pez, Yseult Roch, Petra Sabish, Frédéric Seguette, Tino Sehgal, Esther Snelder, Olga de Soto, Amaia Urra, Hester Van Hasselt, Peter Vandenbempt, Simone Verde
Additional cast
Eric Affergan, Cédric Andrieux, Christian Bakalov, Lara Barsacq, Coralie Bernard, Remo Beuggert, Chantal Bideau, Matthias Breitenbach, Damian Bright, Pierrick Brunard, Fernando Carrion, Carine Charaire, Muriel Corbel, Nuria De Ulibarri, Sandrine Dufeu, Pere Faura, David Fischer, Gaspard Guilbert, Emmanuel Greffet, Yves Heck, Maria Jerez, Wolfram Koch, Thibault Lac, Mirabelle Le Boulicault, Myriam Lecoq Vinagre, Thumette Léon, Antonio Pedro Lopes, Laura Marin, Francesca Mattavelli, Viviana Moin, Frédéric Moreau, Sybille Müller, Martin Nachbar, Aurélia Petit, Kaya Sasaki, Antoine Soulier-Thomazeau, Simone Truong, Emma Vandenbempt (alternately)
Music
Leonard Bernstein, David Bowie, Nick Cave, Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox, J. Horner, W.Jennings, Mark Knopfler, John Lennon and Paul Mac Cartney, Louiguy, Galt Mac Dermott, George Michael, Erick "More" Morillo and M. Quashie, Edith Piaf, The Police et Hugh Padgham, Queen, Lionel Richie, A.Romero Monge and R. Ruiz, Paul Simon
Technical direction
Gilles Gentner
Company manager
Rebecca Lasselin
Assistants for the local restagings
Henrique Neves, Dina Ed Dik, Frédéric Seguette, Peter Vandenbempt
Production
R.B. Jérôme Bel
Coproduction
Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Gasthuis (Amsterdam), Centre Chorégraphique National Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon (Montpellier), Arteleku Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundia (San Sebastian), R.B. Jérôme Bel (Paris)
Premiere
January 4th, 2001, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris (France)

Jérôme Bel Company is subsidized by the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Ile-de-France, French Ministry for Culture and Communication, by the Institut Français, French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, for its international tours and by ONDA – Office National de Diffusion Artistique – for its tours in France