LICHEN-MAN

beautiful losers(diptych)

THE SHAGGS

LICHEN-MAN Adapted and directed by Frédéric Sonntag Written and directed by Frédéric Sonntag based on Prestige de l’Uniforme Adapted from articles and testimonies by Loo Hui Phang and Hugues Micol about The Shaggs available for touring available for touring AsaNIsiMAsa Company AsaNIsiMAsa Company Beautiful losers The diptych is available for touring in 2017 / 2018.

PREVIOUS TOUR DATES

Diptych Nov. 3rd and 4th, 2016 › Le Prisme, centre de développement artistique de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Élancourt (Fr) Nov. 9th and 10th, 2016 › Théâtre Théo Argence, Saint-Priest (Fr) Nov. 17th, 2016 › Le Rayon Vert, Saint-Valéry-en-Caux (Fr) Feb. 10th and 11th , 2017 › Theater festival of Barcelona, Barcelone (Spain)

Lichen-man October 2011 › Created at La Ferme du Buisson, Scène Nationale de Marne-la-Vallée, For “Temps d’Images” Festival (Fr) March 14th, 2016 › Sněz tu žábu Festival - French Institute in Prague (Czech Republic) April 11th and 12th, 2015 › PULP Festival - La Ferme du Buisson, Scène Nationale de Marne-la-Vallée (Fr) July 1st and 2nd, 2016 › Frinje Festival de Artes Escénicas, Madrid (Spain)

The shaggs October 13th, 2012 › La Ferme du Buisson, scène nationale de Marne-la-Vallée, for “Nuit curieuse” in “ Temps d’Images” Festival (Fr) July 15th to 21st, 2013 › La Parenthèse, Avignon OFF Fringe Festival (Fr) November 6th to 8th, 2014 › Le Forum, Scène conventionnée de Blanc-Mesnil (Fr) November 27rh and 28th, 2014 › Théâtre de Sartrouville et des Yvelines - CDN (Fr) December 4th, 2014 › L’Amphithéâtre de Pont-de-Claix (Fr) December 10th to 12th, 2014 › Théâtre des Bains Douches, Le Havre (Fr) December 18th, 2014 › La Closerie, Montreuil-Bellay (Fr) January 23th, 2015 › Centre André Malraux, Hazebrouck (Fr) Febuary 17th to 21st, 201 › Théâtre Paris Villette, Paris (Fr) April 4th, 2017 › Le Grand Bleu – Performing arts for new generations “Youth is great Festival”, Lille (Fr) The Shaggs © Gaelic.fr BEAUTIFUL LOSERS (LICHEN MAN & THE SHAGGS)

Beautiful losers is a two-part performance, suitable for audiences of 13 years and above. Lichen-Man (55 mins) and The Shaggs (50 mins) can be shown either separately, one after the other on the same evening (with a break of 15 mins), or on alternate evenings. The superhero and the rock band: two modern myths reinterpreted as borderline heroes, magnificent wasters. Beautiful losers questions these two key forms of popular culture, and reinvents their magic. Suitable for audiences aged 13 and above. The play is performed in French with subtitles. note from the director

Each of these performances examines a modern myth: - the superhero (Lichen-Man) - the rock band (The Shaggs)

These two myths may be different, but they have a lot in common: - they are both anglo-american, - they are part of popular culture, - they emerged after the war, and their heyday was in the fifties and sixties, - they became emblems of pop culture, - they spread out into all artistic fields and disciplines (cinema, literature, plastic arts, fashion, advertising); - they became “icons”, structural images of our contemporary imagination.

Beautiful losers examines the patterns of these two myths, as well as the way they affect our imagination, by tracing their path and their development. We observe the birth of a superhero, and the creation of a rock band; we watch them evolve. But the heroes of these two performances are a little bit different; they don’t follow the rules. They are not what you would expect from a superhero or a rock band. First of all, they don’t really want to be superheroes or rockstars at all - they don’t fit the model that people try to impose on them. They propose a critique of the two myths, one which challenges them whilst at the same time proposing their re-enchantment. By studying and analysing these two myths, the two performances invite us to reflect on the resulting archetypes: the archetype of the ideal man (employee of the month, perfect lover, protective father, etc.) and the archetype of the star (celebrity, commer- cialisation of the body, narcissism, etc.). They form a critique of society’s penchant to reproduce these archetypes. Based on this critical approach, they offer a new interpretation of these types in the form of anti-heroes, who reinvent the rules in their own way. Questioning the norm is at the heart of both performances. Paul Folvorino, the hero of Lichen-Man, or Dot, Betty and Helen, the three sisters who form the Shaggs, want nothing but a normal life. Going against a society which wants to force them to be extraordinary, to become superheros or rockstars, they try to escape what has gradually become the norm, a new conformism: becoming a star, or becoming the ideal man. They reverse this process: by refusing to become these supposedly extraordinary beings, by wanting to be ordinary, they evade this spectacular anti-conformism, which in reality is nothing more than vain and sterile conformism. They create their own paths and end up being truly original, truly extraordinary. This consumer society, where everything is a show, pushes everyone to become a certain kind of person – to separate one’s self from the masses, to succeed – producing standardised and regulated behaviours. But the Shaggs and Lichen-Man – by wanting to be like everyone else, by accepting who they are, by not trying to distinguish themselves at any cost or to succeed, by simply doing things their own way, beyond any calculation, beyond any posturing – end up being in a league of their own. Frédéric Sonntag, mars 2015

The Shaggs © Gaelic.fr Lichen-Man © Gaelic.fr LICHEN-MAN Based on Prestige de l’uniforme de Loo Hui Phang et Hugues Micol Adapted and directed by Frédéric Sonntag Cast Antoine Herniotte, Lisa Sans, Jérémie Sonntag, Paul Levis, Arnaud Delannoy Original drawings, scale models and video design Thomas Rathier Music Paul Levis Lighting design Manuel Desfeux Costume design Alice Duchange Stage Manager and Head of Sound Bertrand Faure Head of Lighting Maëlle Payonne Head of Video Thomas Rathier Set design Sardine & Whisky Production Management Emilie Henin (Bureau Formart)

For all age groups 13 and above Duration of the show 55 minutes

Production AsaNIsiMAsa Company (2011) Co-production La Ferme du Buisson - Scène Nationale Marne-la-Vallée (First created in October 2011, for “Temps d’Images” Fes- tival – Arte, re-created in 2015 for “PULP Festival”) • With the participation of DICRéAM. AsaNIsiMAsa Company is subsidised by DRAC Île-de-France presentation

Paul Forvolino is a mediocre researcher, specialised in lichen studies. He is insecure and his daily life is eating him up inside. But everything radically changes, as an incident occurs in his laboratory and grants him with super powers. He will be able to expe- rience the ideal of life he’s always dreamed of, at last. But at what cost?

Based on the Prestige de l’Uniforme, a comic book by Hugues Micol and Loo Hui Phang, published in 2005, Lichen-Man goes over superhero mythologies with a fine-toothed comb, grasping its stakes and impact. On stage, projected drawings, filmed models, live music and live storytelling play around comics and fantasy films’ codes, while inviting the audience to recover their own ima- ginary view on this popular figure.

Set in a crepuscular city, where competition and performance prevail, Paul Forvolino is a reluctant hero, who has the ability to save the world. But who will be saving him?

ADAPTATION & THeMES

Loo Hui Phang and Hugues Micol’s comic make the superhero mythologies their own: the norm issue, the hero figure, the responsi- bility that comes with gaining powers and thus, power itself, the feeling of not fitting in, the relationship between an individual and the community, self-denial...In that sense, they pay a proper tribute to comic classics (especially to Spiderman and Xmen).

Our adaptation of Loo Hui Pang’s script redefines the narrative, gets rid of secondary plots, in order to focus on Paul Forvolino’s journey, a mediocre man who will go from anti-hero to superhero, without ever experiencing the “normality” stage, which he is aspiring to.

In fact, Paul Forvolino will soon realise that his superhero status, his perfect, brilliant, ambitious, perfect lover-persona is at the exact opposite of who he used to be, making him a monster. A superhero like a metaphor of the model perfection our society seems to expect and acclaim, which actually tends to be monstrous. Drawing a parallel between perfection and monstrosity: isn’t Paul Forvolino’s dreamed life, that he finally ends up getting with his superpowers, a certain form of atrocity? This is one of the interpretation trails we chose to follow and adapt.

Because Paul Forvolino’s transformation is as much as into a superhero as it is into a monster (physically but also morally). He in fact never stopped being the antihero he originally was. He finds himself forced to accomplish his superhero fate against his will. Not only his position isn’t exactly admirable, it takes away his right to happiness and makes him an outcast. Even though the story follows the classic steps of the “superhero journey” and meets the genre expectations, it is still tinted with melancholy, a genuine darkness and offers a gloomy perspective on social standards.

The dialectic between weaknesses and forces is another key theme we chose to take on. Lichen is a composite organism from algae and fungus, which uses its two components’ weaknesses to thrive and create an incredibly more resistant organism. Likewise, Paul Forvolino’s superpowers feed on his weaknesses. They are the own nourishing the lichen and awarding him with superpowers. From his transformation on, his antihero characteristics -cowardice, fear, guilt- will be the driving forces of his powers: a highly interesting duality. COMICS / VIDEO / THEATRE: FROM ONE LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER > Not only is Lichen-Man an adaptation of a comic book onto a stage, it is also Loo Hui Phang’s script adaptation into a brand new project, searching for a new way to be conveyed, through projected drawings, filmed models, live music and actors. > It is not about exposing results (how a comic book transforms into projected images, projected images into real images and real images into live theatre) but always showing the transformation process, making the shifts from one media to another visible. > This desire to make visible the shift from one way of representation to another meets several goals: - dealing with the transformation process, which is the core of the project- revealing the constraints applied with representing fantasy genre actions (transformation, superpowers etc.) which imply juggling with different possible effects to achieve them. - the distance effect created by all those different manners of representation of one sole object or body, allowing to demystify it and point out its status even better. - the image/embodiment duality: what does representing an image mean? More over, a fantastical figure such as of the superhero? > Representing a superhero on stage as an artistic gesture can appear quite naive, inevitably far from Hollywood super produc- tions and its spectacular effects. However, this statement is possibly much more genuine and close to the first comic books naivety, close to the way the reader’s imagination was then fully part of the story construction. To be able to enthral the audience with a superhero figure again, to make it dreamy (even though it is to later decompose it), making our imaginaries battle in a way. > Using existing drawings (therefore not particularly adapted to theatre) turned out to be difficult. Moreover, we wanted to grant the project with an original graphic identity. We therefore commissioned Thomas Rathier (film maker and designer) to create brand new drawings, specifically designed for the set, according to the device functions and different techniques.

Lichen-Man © Gaelic.fr The Shaggs © Gaelic.fr THE SHAGGS Adapted and directed by Frédéric Sonntag (from articles and testimonies about The Shaggs) Cast Lisa Sans, Fleur Sulmont, Jérémie Sonntag et Paul Levis Video design and head of Video Thomas Rathier Music Paul Levis Lighting design Manuel Desfeux Stage Manager and Head of Sound Bertrand Faure Head of Lighting Maëlle Payonne Production Management Emilie Hénin (Bureau Formart)

For all age groups 13 and above Duration of the show 50 minutes

Production AsaNIsiMAsa Company (2012) Coproduction La Ferme du Buisson - scène nationale de Marne-La-Vallée (created in 2012 for “Nuit Curieuse”), le Forum - scène conventionnée de Blanc-Mesnil (re-creation in 2014) PrEsentation The Shaggs, or the true story of the worst group ever. The Shaggs, or how a father fulfilled a prophecy. The Shaggs, or the story of a ruined adolescence and posthumous fame. The Shaggs, or how rebellion is all about hair and pure posturing.

Frédéric Sonntag and the AsaNIsiMAsa company take you on a journey into the world of the most unlikely band in the history of rock’n’roll: The Shaggs - A band of three sisters from the depths of New Hampshire – formed in the late sixties through the perseverance of a modest father. - A band with an extraordinary sound – intuitive, naive, crude, pure, free from all influence, unclassifiable. - A band named by Kurt Cobain at number 5 in his list of the greatest of all time. - A band which himself described as “better than ”. “Maybe the best worst rock ever made.” New York Times note from the director The Shaggs was created for the Nuit Curieuse “Rebel! Rebel?” event, during the Temps d’Images festival at the Ferme du Buisson on 13 October 2012 – when the AsaNIsiMAsa company was tasked with producing a 45-minute presentation on a rock band of their choice. We decided to retell, in our own special way, the story of The Shaggs. As was the case a year earlier with Lichen-Man (also created in the context of the Nuit Curieuse event of the Temps d’images festival at the Ferme du Buisson) and the superhero myth, this play focuses on one of the modern myths of the second half of the 20th century: the rock band. Right from the start, the story of The Shaggs has all the elements of a fairy tale or myth, allowing us to escape reality and enter into a fictional dimension. Our story begins in the mid-sixties in Fremont, a small town in New Hampshire. Austin Wiggin, the father of a poor family with seven children, forces his three eldest daughters to form a rock band to fulfil one of his mother’s prophecies - she predicted, several years earlier, that his daughters would form a rock band and become famous. From that point on, the story of The Shaggs looks more like a fairy tale than a true story. It is the fictional dimension that immediately intrigued and fascinated me, because what really interests me within the history of rock is the ability of a rock band to create a legend, a narrative, a myth and, in a sense, a certain kind of literature. So this is the classic story of a rock group: its creation, its rise and its end – just like the story of any other rock group. Except that here everything works in reverse. Everything challenges the story of a standard rock group, allowing us to gain a better insight into the patterns and their influence on our imagination : - The creation: the girls who formed The Shaggs do not want to become rock stars – they simply want a normal life. So they obey their father’s wishes when, in an ordinary rock story, we would hear of teenagers disobeying their parents, locking themselves in the garage to play music, and making music the centre of their life. In this case, it’s the father who locks the girls in the garage of the family home, and orders them to make an album. - The rise: in most ordinary cases, a rock group experiences a few setbacks before starting to become famous. In this tale, nothing takes place; nothing happens. The girls’ music receives nothing but rejection. . - The end: rock groups often end up finishing badly. They are not made to last: either they are simply forgotten, or they agonise over pathetic and never-ending farewell tours. Here, we see the complete opposite: The Shaggs experience unexpected success when the group no longer exists. The story of The Shaggs questions the norm. These three girls do not fit the mould – they do not fit the typical image of a rock band. Their music is a music without norms – it is unclassifiable and follows no fads or trends. The history of rock never ceases to question the norm. Every new trend is a rejection of the previous– and all of them reject a certain state of society so that this attitude, which one could consider rebellious, this marginal attitude, ends up becoming the norm. This is how The Shaggs create a story that can be understood as one of true rebellion. Ordered (formulated by society, embodied by their father) to become rock stars (as if this had become a model imposed by society), the young girls of The Shaggs refused. And although they eventually do become celebrities, it is unwillingly. Their music is unlike anything else, it does not conform to any trend –not even the trend of going against the system, being deliberately rebellious. The Shaggs’ act of rebellion – the one where Frank Zappa or Kurt Cobain also found themselves on centre stage – was simply being elsewhere. Frédéric Sonntag

***

- Oh, the rich people want what the poor people’s got - And the poor people want what the rich people’s got - And the skinny people want what the fat people’s got - And the fat people want what the skinny people’s got - You can never please anybody in this world

Extract from the album « » and The Shaggs.

*** ‘‘The Shaggs are authentic, pure, free from external influences. Their music is different – it is their own. They believe in it, they live it. Amongst all the contemporary acts in the world today, The Shaggs are perhaps the only ones doing what the others would like to do – to play only what they believe in, only what they feel – not what others think The Shaggs should feel. The Shaggs love you… They don’t intend to change their music or their style to follow the whims of a frustrated world. You should be grateful for that, because you know that they are pure – what more could one ask for? They are sisters and mem- bers of a large family, in which mutual respect and the love of thy neighbour reach incredible new heights,… in an atmosphere which encourages them to develop their music free from external influences. They are happy and love what they are doing. They are doing it because they love it.”

Austin Wiggin Lichen-Man © Gaelic.fr AsaNIsiMAsa COMPANY Founded by Frédéric Sonntag in 2001 as he graduated from Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique, AsaNIsiMAsa Company focuses on the space fiction holds in the contemporary world. It is indeed the stakes of most of their projects. What fiction is left to create in today’s theatre? And rising against which dominating fictions?

The Company often bases its work on minor narrative genres (anticipation, fantasy, disaster movie) or on popular culture (TV series, B or Z movies, comic books, concerts). Their creations examine the patterns and narrative mechanisms of these materials and twist them in order to shine a better light on what really is at stakes.

Its work is characterized by: - Theatrical forms that explore their narrative structure, where original music and image play their full roles in the dramaturgy, approaching themes such as: the link between reality and fiction, construction and dissolution of identities, contemporary fears, memory mechanisms.

- performances (often shorter and lighter forms) based on images (ex:Atomic Alert, which distorts American movies from the fifties) or on concert forms (Incantations, Rester parmi les vivants), or even on installations in situ and object theatre (Je ne sais quoi te dire, on devrait s’en sortir...).

AsaNIsiMAsa creations are all crepuscular fictions, taking place in a world haunted by catastrophes. They depict a struggling humanity, trying to find ways to survive, while facing a relentless mechanism that tends towards dehumanisation, body control, language impoverishment and dispossession.

The AsaNIsiMAsa Company has been in residency at the Forum du Blanc Mesnil since 2011, partnering up with the Ferme du Buisson on original projects (Sous contrôle) and also on commissioned short forms (Lichen-Man, The Shaggs). Scène Nationale 61 has also actively been supporting its work since 2010.

The AsaNIsiMAsa company has been working on sharing their craftsmanship and experiences with contemporary writing with different kind of audiences: amateurs, students, and children. These projects can take the form of meetings before and after the shows, writing, reading or acting workshops, trainings etc. It is often revolving around how much space original music and video can hold on stage.

AsaNIsiMAsa CREATIONS COMING SOON B. Traven (March 2018) WORKS AVAILABLE FOR TOURING Benjamin Walter (October 2015), George Kaplan (2013), The Shaggs (2012), Lichen-Man (2011) , Atomic Alert (2008). PREVIOUS works Rester parmi les vivants (2012), Sous contrôle (2011), Je ne sais quoi te dire, on devrait s’en sortir... (2010), Toby ou le saut du chien (2009-2010), Dans la zone intérieure (2008), Incantations (2008), Nous étions jeunes alors (2007-2008), Des heures entières avant l’exil (2005-2006), Intrusion (2004), Disparu(e)(s) (2003-2004), Idole (2002). biographY - frédéric sonntag

Born in 1978, Frédéric Sonntag is an author, director and actor. After graduating from Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur, he founded the AsaNIsiMAsa Company and started working on his own plays.

He has written about ten plays: Idole, Disparu(e)(s), Intrusion, Des heures entières avant l’exil, Nous étions jeunes alors, Toby ou le saut du chien, Incantations, Dans la zone intérieure, Sous contrôle, Soudaine timidité des crépuscules, George Kaplan, for which he was given a grant by the Centre National du Livre, by the Beaumarchais Association and by the Centre National du Théâtre several times.

He directed his own plays and has presented them in several venues and festivals, such as: the Ferme du Buisson - Scène Nationale de Marne la Vallée, Théâtre Ouvert - Centre National des Dramaturgies Contemporaines, the SN 61 - Scène Nationale d’Alençon, The Jean Vilar Theatre of Suresnes, the Théâtre de l’Odéon (Festival Berthier and Festival Impatience), the Théâtre des Ateliers de Lyon, the ATP d’Aix-en-Provence, Mains d’œuvres, the Reims Centre Dramatique National (Festival Reims à scène ouverte), Act’Oral, the Dijon (Festival Frictions), le Festival 360, the Nancy Centre Dramatique National (Festival R.I.N.G.) and the Forum du Blanc-Mesnil.

Théâtre Ouvert has published his plays in the Tapuscrit Collection, as well as l’Avant-Scène Théâtre and Editions Théâtrales.

Since 2009, he has been taking part in several International events: International Summer Workshop (Sala Beckett, Barcelona), 10th Dramaturgie Européenne Contemporaine Festival (Santiago de Chile), Dramaturgias Cruzadas (Buenos Aires), Corps de Texte Europe (Bulgaria, Belgium), Encontros de Novas Dramaturgias Contem-poraneas (Lisbon), Primeurs Festival (Saarbrucken), Festival For Ny Europaeisk Dramatik (Copenhague), Writing and directing (Finland), Rendez-vous sur scène – Contemporary Theatre (Athens).

In 2003, he was part of the writers’ residency program at The Chartreuse in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. He was an associate director in 2007-2008 to the Maski-Théâtre, Serge Tranvouez company. In 2009, he also was a guest writer for a year, at the Panta-Théâtre in Caen. He directed in 2007 a reading marathon at the François Mitterand-National French Library, as a tribute to Ionesco. In 2011-2012, he directed Lichenman and The Shaggs, two short forms commissioned by the Ferme du Buisson for the Nuit Curieuse, Temps d’Images Festival.

Frédéric Sonntag has also been working on creating performances, together with other members of his company, such as: Atomic Alert, Je ne sais quoi te dire on devrait s’en sortir...which have been presented in several festivals and theatres.

Between 2008 and 2013, his company is part of the 360 collective. In 2012-2013, he takes part in a writing residency at the Royal Court in London. He is also, with his company, in residency at the Forum du Blanc-Mesnil then at the Ferme du Buisson, Scène Nationale de Marne la Vallée, during 2013-2015.

He was awarded with the students Godot Award in 2010, the Young Audience Award for contemporary plays in 2010 and has been the Journées de Lyon laureate for playwrights in 2012.

He has been teaching since 2008 and has been sharing his educational tools through workshops, work groups, conferences, and for different types of audience (amateurs, high school and university students...). He has been working for schools (in several French counties: Var, Calvados, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis), at Bussang Théâtre du Peuple, at the Caen and Toulon Conservatoires, at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers, at the Ferme du Buisson, the Scène Nationale d’Alençon, and at the Forum du Blanc-Mesnil.

His plays have been translated in several languages: English, German, Spanish (Chilli, Argentina), Bulgarian, Catalan, Portuguese, Czech, Finnish, Greek, Serbian, Danish, and have been performed in several countries. The Shaggs © Gaelic.fr

contacts

AsaNIsiMAsa Compagny c/o Frédéric Sonntag - 35 rue des petits carreaux 75002 Paris

Management, production, diffusion : Emilie Henin - Bureau Formart [email protected] www.bureau-formart.org +33 (0)9 70 46 78 18