‘Terces’, by Johann Le Guillerm

Review from: CIRCa Festival, Auch; 27th October 2022

This review was written as part of a module on the BA Circus degree at SKH. You can read more student reviews from CIRCa here.

This review is a description of what happens on stage for you who want to know a bit more what the show is about before seeing it.

Terces is the third solo show created by Johann Le Guillerm. The audience is placed almost in 360°, except from the two opposite exits of the stage.

Johann is the main character on stage, he has an imposing way of being dressed in dark clothes, long jacket, long trousers, and low heel shoes of which you always hear a clear and loud sound when he walks. He does not speak, but he makes some throat sounds that give him sort of a wild animal personality, he usually makes them when something bother him or does not go as planned. The show is formed by many sections (at least ten) of object manipulation and half self-working machines created by Johann. All the objects and the machines are very precise in their construction and seem also very mathematical. A lot of attention is put on details since the very beginning.

One of the machines has a mechanism with a water basin and sand containers that, once launched, continues by itself and makes the structure move from one side to the other of the stage.

In one object section he uses a lot of rectangular wood sticks (5x5x200cm approximately) with which he builds two different structures that hold together thanks to the interlocking of the sticks themselves. In this section, but also in some other ones, on stage there are also some technical assistants that are there to help, but they are completely neutral, they don’t take central attention, the focus is always on the object and on Johann, who also focuses on the object.

If you enjoy particular objects and mathematics principles I am sure you will enjoy this show, and also you might admire the dedication put in each creation that for me gives importance and a specific story to every object.

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