ZIMMERMANN & DE PERROT

23-27 november
Teatro Eliseo

To use the rather dated term “a repeat performance by special request” the return of “Chouf ouchouf” to the Teatro Eliseo—quite unusual for Romaeuropa—is the result of the extraordinary success of last year’s performance by the Groupe Acrobatique de Tanger founded by Martin Zimmermann and Dimitri de Perrot.

The reason for such acclaim is the uniqueness of this type of performance which brings together the exuberant corporeity of the circus arts, magical contemporary creativity and passion, drawing into this mélange the everyday obsessions of today’s society to create a performance suffused with a surreal vein of irony, levity and humour.

Zimmerman and de Perrot have been together as a team since 1999 and today, have a series of co-productions to their name; Zimmermann in the role of scenographer, choreographer and director and de Perrot in charge of the music. Their productions create an illusory, ever-changing universe with mobile towers perpetually moving across the stage. The group conjures up images of a dream-like casbah, bustling with life in which a series of bizarre characters take life through dance, song and work and the enthralling physical energy of the interpreters rivets the attention of the spectators. Heirs of the centuries-old Moroccan circus arts, the Groupe Acrobatique de Tanger has taken on the role of continuing this traditional art which—threatened by social change—risked either oblivion or the fate of becoming a mere tourist attraction. Sanae El Kamouni founded the group in 2003 with the aim of invigorating this traditional art-form by crossing it with elements of contemporary theatre and the following year, the group reached international acclaim with the production “Taoub” by Aurélien Bory. After watching this performance, Zimmermann and de Perrot were struck by the Groupe Acrobatique’s performance and soon after their collaboration commenced.

Translated literally from the Arabic idiom “Chouf ouchouf” «look and look again», it really means «look, but look again attentively». An apt title for this performance which seems to depict an ironic portrait of Arabic society with its instability, conflictual equilibria and anachronisms yet at the same time moving forward to the future as seen by recent events in Morocco and Yemen. With a sensation of being lost in the bustle of an Arab souk or a European underground station, the universal message conveyed to the spectator is the image of modern man represented by an acrobat, balancing between euphoria and silence.