SANS OBJET

Not knowing what you are going to see is certainly one of the best ways of going to the theatre.

- AURÉLIEN BORY

"The relationship between man and machine is evolving very rapidly. It's not a question of passing judgement on it but accepting it," says Aurélien Bory (Colmar, France, 1972), a director who enjoys surprising his audiences with a spectacular dramatic style, mixing circus, dance and visual theatre. After experiencing his extraordinary stage settings, one critic asked, "Are we talking about theatre, contemporary circus, dance or new technology? His ideas cover everything but what we can talk about is onstage conjuring, true magic, in other words a SHOW, in capital letters".

In Sans Objet, this French artist, scientist and circus man explores the narrowing - but still no more understood - link between human beings and technology. The onstage car industry robot is like a strange mythological figure, bringing to mind images from the science-fiction of the 1970s. Out of its normal setting, this powerful articulated arm becomes another actor, or character alongside Olivier Alenda and Olivier Boyer, who launch into a choreographic dialogue of poetic proportions.

Sans Objet recreates with humour and poetry an atmosphere which is increasingly familiar, in which robots become more human and humans more robotic. Without any words, the actors turn into a living tool of communication which dances, struggles, plays, wins and loses when confronted by the disturbing energy of that metal arm.

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