The street, lightbulbs hang, mats are strewn, haybales await… A shed, a caravan, a kiosque, a place to call home….
The audience enter into a world of one of our actors, the garden of acrobat Henri Bruère-Dawson. In order to get there, each audience member has had to get past two serious guards, each with a mountain of incomprehensible paperwork for each person, to be let one by one into the performance space.
Henri is creating his garden, from a soil filled suitcase, his home away from home, accompanied by two musicians, he plants seeds and for each flower he chooses an audience member to give it to.
The sound of a plane, he runs…one by one the six members of the company comes onto the stage, each with his own baggage, a suitcase of secrets, photos and the soil of their country, not knowing if they will find a hostile or welcoming environment. They watch each other, they watch the audience. A gesture is made, a handshake, simple, but welcoming…
The actors shake hands with the audience, the audience shake hands with each other, a frenzy of welcome, a smile, a photo of this special moment is taken.
With the opening of each suitcase tells a story – a story of migration, a video of the people in your town, sometimes a single voice, other times a choir of voices; we hear your community talk about where they have come from, what home means to them, what they miss,…a message passes through the audience, an umbrella shelters them from the wet, a call for shoes in order to be accepted, a dance between two people….
Accompanied by choreography, acrobatics, live music, and exciting live and recorded video, Diaspora slowly builds up the relationship between your audience members, starting with a simple handshake, and ending in a dance…
With hidden maps inside their costumes, our actors take the audience on their own personal journey, through countries and sands, on trains, by foot, alone and with each other, to arrive in your town, hold up a mirror to your society and celebrate the fact that we are all different.
A UNIQUE SHOW
Each show is unique to your town. We come 9-7 days before to find testimonies, to run workshops and to discover your the people in your community. The stories we hear and the people we meet are woven into the structure of our show, making for a unique experience created just for you!
The show ends with a ball for the whole community.
We do encourage people to bring their own instruments to jam along with us at the end!
Diaspora 