Groupe ACM (France)

www.groupeacm.fr

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—Asian Premiere

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In June 2011 we were putting on Casimir and Caroline by Horváth. There were nine performers, two directors, three stage managers, a dramaturg, a scenographer... It was the first time that we had a big budget production. Many people were expecting our play. We were anxious.

 

Meanwhile Mains d’oeuvres (the theater where we were doing our residency) ordered us to do a short play for its festival. We were in a huge rush with the premiere’s coming but we couldn’t refuse the order and finally decided to deal with our project: putting on Casimir and Caroline.

 

Under Pressure—Temporary Title is a meta-theatrical conference about theatre and the problems we have to face as soon as we undertake a project: pressure, financial problems, delays, rows, resignations…

 

We imagined a very simple scenic device: Emilie and Hélène play the directors sitting behind a table covered with stacks of papers and talk to the audience as if they were the actors of the play. The text is constructed on variations, confusion and misunderstandings.

 

Unfortunately the two directors freak out because their speech gets more and more confused. The more they want to be understood, the less they are. They finally become speechless and crazy.

 

What can you create when you lose control?

 

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Groupe ACM was born in 2009 and since then, we have put on five plays, three performances and wrote three plays. We needed to be on stage with our own words, music and lights as well as ourselves to express the provocative and impertinent theater we wanted to perform.

When we began Under Pressure—Temporary Title we were going crazy. We’d been working on Casimir and Caroline for one year and when we began rehearsals, we had the feeling that the play was escaping us. We were losing the control of our show and it was painful.

 

It is in this state of mind that we’ve been working on Under Pressure—Temporary Title. We had a very low budget to realize this new play, had no time, no actors and no more energy but a lot to say. Nevertheless we wanted to express our desperation with an exulting play.

 

We wanted to make fun of this theatrical situation and twisting it to turn it into the subject of Under Pressure—

Temporary Title.

 

Under Pressure—Temporary Title is built on the loss of Casimir and Caroline.

 

Ironically, we love to perform Under Pressure—Temporary Title, which is a very jubilant play.