Aux Éclats ..., by Cie Nathalie Béasse at the Théâtre Varia in Bruxelles

Nathalie Béasse is director, visual artist, choreographer and scenographer born in Angers, where she studied Fine Arts. Passionate about image and directing, she discovered performance through Marina Abramović, who gave a talk during an exchange trip she took part in at the Braunschweig University of Art. In 1999, she founded her own company and put on her first show, Trop-plein, which won two awards. This was followed by a host of collaborations with theatres, including the Scène Nationale de Saint-Nazaire, the Théâtre de la Bastille and the Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand. 

Premiered in 2019, Aux Éclats ... is a show that explores bodies that dance, objects that come to life and the vision of a collapsing world, to create a variation on the theme of downfall and laughter. Through a performance by three men, Béasse has invented a ballet of stories and images, captured on the spot to more keenly explore the dreams of children or adults, through a set of costumes, made-up games and tongue-in-cheek DIY, to frequent bursts of laughter. Throughout her tapestry of images, Béasse aims to showcase the contrasts of life, as well as the way in which the living and the inanimate collide. 

In Aux Éclats ..., director Nathalie Béasse takes a candid look at human flaws, our doubts, our moments of lightheartedness, tinted with gentle melancholy. She embraces laughter to its furthest limits by relying on dedicated performers who use their exuberant energy to personify these bodies and minds drifting between tragedy and comedy. Throughout the show, emotions get out of hand to create a kaleidoscope of feelings, sensations and emotions, propelled by an astonishing sense of poetry and invention. 

There will be three performances of Aux Éclats ... at the Théâtre Varia in Brussels, on 18, 19 and 20 January 2024. The project is supported by the French Embassy in Belgium and the Institut français, as part of EXTRA, a programme to support French contemporary creation. Launched in 2016, it aims to promote and pool the initiatives that are now helping to raise the profile of this French creative scene. Each year, a selection of artist's projects in the visual arts, live performance, design, new images and digital arts sectors are presented.