Ouest France2 May 2018
Good-bye, Cirque Plume, and above all, thank you!
Rezé - The artists enchanted 23,000 spectators during their month at Rezé. It was their last season. They’ve left us starry-eyed.
If circus "is the art of taming the moon," it has taken us off the earth for a month in the Place du Pays in Rezé. We came to see the actors, the musicians and the circus performers of the troupe — inimitable since 1984, but who will soon, unfortunately, claim its rights to retirement. "Will we be sad at the end of this final season? No, I do not think so," wrote the director (and Plume co-founder) Bernard Kudlak. We don’t either.
“Like a dream”
Who, among the 23,000 spectators who have spent their evenings and afternoons under the big top, did not enjoy this last season? We have the right, after all, to find this show disjointed, not to understand everything, but is that necessary?
Yet the miracle is there and the magic works. Artists shift in and out as if on a cloud. The show is sober in its dialogues, rich in its choreography, aerial in its acrobatics, slapstick in its image of the man-gorilla-dog-horse, and as poetic as anyone could wish for. And as for Benoît Schick’s music, put together on a 12-track CD: magnificent.
As Little Billie said on the night of the premiere: "Is this a dream or what?” For Cirque Plume’s great feat is their ability to compose a show that makes both children and adults laugh and dream. Sometimes at the same time, sometimes set apart. For Plume, this seventh passage in Rezé was a final spring, set to the rhythm of the four seasons: a hymn to feathers that fly away, to costumes that respond, to upending notes. Superb.
“A bubble of poetry”
Among the witnesses of this colorful farandole was Nadine Nicolas, who shared her enthusiasm with us. An employee at the Rezé town hall, she became a volunteer at the Soufflerie "after the attack on the Bataclan, because the best way to connect people is culture."
On Cirque Plume’s second evening, Nadine took on the role of an usher at the circus. This did not prevent her from seeing the show after taking the tickets of 980 spectators.
"I had already seen the Cirque Plume in 2004. This time, it’s a real intergenerational show. Near me, there was an adorable little girl who was laughing. And a little boy started to dance,” says Nadine. “And then, I loved the music. Plume is a bubble of calm and of poetry, a moment of solace in a society that is accelerating.” Goodbye, Plume, and most of all, thank you for this moment of solace.
Michel TANNEAU.