Christoph Marthaler

Aucune idée: an entire programme! Or its opposite, because the grandiose, hilarious, fantastic and offbeat art of Mathaler is anything but programmable. “Aucune idée” – no idea – two words that serve when nothing else comes to mind, to fill a hole in a conversation, to pave over a gap when competency fails. Where should such absence be situated, and to what presence should it be assigned? “No idea!” An avenue of thought, or of circus, in which improvisors and musicians take off to juggle between experience and lack of knowledge …

These two found each other. One had just left his native Scotland to study German literature. The other was just 17 years old, studying the oboe, and practicing pantomime and dance. The meeting took place during a stay with a family in Zurich, the city in which Dada was born – a fact that cannot be put down to mere chance. A first show, a first scandal: during an evening at the end of the school year, in the tiny hall of a small rural parish, Christoph Mathaler guided to the stage Graham Valentine, dressed only in an old bed sheet, in which the latter performed a song made famous by Marlene Dietrich, complete with lascivious poses, in front of the pastor and his flock. That was back in 1970. Fifty-some years later, have they changed at all? Valentine has finished his studies and “found his inner clown”, as actors say: whether as a language professor (a job he really exercised), a singer-speaker and deadpan provocateur, or master of ceremonies misguiding the visitors through his partner’s installations, his intriguing presence on the stage, his long-limbed silhouette and piercing gaze, his immovable pride suddenly erupting into convulsions, have made him one of the familiar features of a theatrical world amongst the most original of our time. As to the imperturbable Marthaler, he has become one of the creators of stage poetry that shatters all conventions, enchants audiences, and continues to defy description, a sort of neo-surrealism based on musical collages – pratfalls, slapstick, clown noses – exquisite cadavers, dreamy irony and liberating nonsense. These explosive mixes, which for lack of a better word are called “spectacle”, he crafts with the help of a group of varying geometry, depending on the needs, made up of top-tier artistic collaborators: in this case, Martin Zeller, virtuoso of the viola da gamba and the cello, and Valentine himself. A few months ahead of the premiere, it would be vain to try to predict the results of their return. The most we can venture is that the trio will explore, according to the show’s dramaturge, “a recurrent global phenomenon: deficiency. How does it get here? Where does it live? No idea. […] All this in all languages and in all registers. And in music. What kind of music? No idea.” 

Project shared with Théâtre Dijon Bourgogne
Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne Production

Création 2021
Conception & staging Christoph Marthaler
Scenography Duri Bischoff
Dramaturgie Malte Ubenauf
Music Martin Zeller
Comedian Graham F. Valentine
Costumes Sara Kittelmann
Lights Jean-Baptiste Boutte
Staging assistant Camille Logoz, Floriane Mésenge
Sets and accessories realisation Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne