Review from: Circusstad Festival, Reclaim Tent Schouwburgplein, Rotterdam; 3rd May 2025, 19.00
An accident has destroyed Théâtre d’Un Jour’s tent, so tonight Reclaim is performed under the blue sky, on and off a small white circular stage surrounded by bench seating. To the side of the stage stands a totem like pole adorned with sheep skulls. Two cellists sit and play in the front row, and no-one is more than five narrow rows back from the action. And what action there is!
Reclaim is publicised as ‘an imaginary ritual freely inspired by the Ko’ch in Central Asia, where women try to build an egalitarian relationship with men with the aim of creating a fairer world for future generations’. We see a quietly distraught woman enter the ring carrying a motionless child who is blindfolded, rolled in a sheepskin and placed at the base of the totemic pole. To the beat of a drum, four men stomp and chant in an emotional ritual with the power and force of a Haka. Then, as the cellist plays and a singer laments, fire bowls are lit and held. Acrobatic balances reflective of trust are scattered in a second as snarling wolf-like predators fight on stage and spill into the audience.
This is intensely physical and powerful drama that the audience feels, and involuntarily becomes part of, as we are taken on a journey from savagery and subjugation to collaboration, humanity and parity. The cellists are lifted on to shoulders as they play and the singer ascends to be the top a three high tower without a quiver in her voice. In the middle of Rotterdam – as dogs reply to the forceful howl of a woman facing off a man, and seagulls echo the Haka-like chants – we cannot escape that we part of a wilder world.
Brought home to us though, is that being part of that wilder world does not mean we have to be savages. We leave with a few spoken words in our mind, ‘The future is not what will happen to us. It is what we make of it.‘
The performers are superb, both intensely physical and emotionally compelling, notably Blandine Coulon, at the heart of the piece, who is as sensational a physical actor as she is a singer. This is an hour-long show that rewards making a long journey to see.
– Writer and director: Patrick Masset
– Opera singer: Blandine Coulon or Camille Brault
– Cellists: Eugénie Defraigne, Suzanne Vermeyen or Ambre Tamagna
– Acrobats: Chloé Chevallier, César Mispelon, Lisandro Gallo or Franco Pelizzari Del Valle, Joaquin Diego Bravo or Lucas Elias and Paul Krügener
– Scenography and costume design: Oria Puppo
– Puppet: Polina Borissova
– Masks: Isis Hauben
– Ironwork: Jean-Marc Simon
– Production of the painted canvas: Eugénie Obolensky
– Choreographic work: Dominique Duszynski
– Assistant: Lola Chuniaud
– Lighting creation: Frédéric Vannes (indoor version) & Emily Brassier (big top version)
– General control and lighting control: Adrien De Reusme
– Image: Danny Willems
– Cook: Géraldine Py
– Thanks to Malia Bendi Merad, Javier Swedzky, Marina Simonova for their valuable artistic collaboration
– Co-producers: les Halles de Schaarbeek – Brussels (Belgium), le Maillon – Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène Européenne (France), Le Vilar – Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), Palais des Beaux-Arts – Charleroi (Belgium), UP – Circus & Perfoming Arts (BEL)
– Made possible by: MAD Festival in Antwerp, Centre Culturel de Bièvre, the Theater op de Markt/Dommelhof in Neerpelt, the CAS, the WBI, the National Lottery (FWB), the Walloon Region and WBTD
