Bye Bye Lacrimae

Emilie-Cie Nez4C (textes), Lucie Plessis (dessins) & Sébastien Armengol (photos), Emilie-Cie Nez4C (textes), Lucie Plessis (dessins) & Sébastien Armengol (photos)

The people in the festival come to see each other, we meet at the catering, give flowers when we leave.

During the day, between two naps or two shows, in the Big Top, people jump, juggle, walk on the line…

Trapeze lesson in the yellow Big Top. It’s informal, it’s improvisation, we (nearly) all want to try. Our teacher  : Elice.

Flying rope lesson in the red Big Top. When we saw the act in Lacrimae’s cabaret the other night, Helene wanted to fly… The teacher  : Fanny from the company  « Cahin-caha ».

The artists fo the cabaret are from Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Spain, France. The three circus companies had 5 days to produce this show. Long white strings bind them together. That’s their idea, their setting. They knit, they weave, they spin for one hour and a half. It’s a short lived show. That’s it, it’s over ! Most of the artists have left today.

Perfoming Arts are made from the instant, from what arouses, from what disappears. Every day, each one of us gets over the no longer existing moment and tries to make the most of the constantly renewed present ones. Everybody knows this feeling. It’s the artists’ daily bread.

Matthieu got a foot injury. He has a bruise. Hélène and Matthieu went to the hospital. Nothing’s broken but for tonight and 5 more times, they will need to adapt the show. They don’t seem to panic. They know that the body can broke, get injured. It’s part of the game. There are days when you win, some others, when you lose. There are even days when you’re offside.

After « Lacrimae », some other artists will show us their prowess and poetry.

They are fitting up this morning. One of the artists falls from the high up in the Big Top. Nothing serious but he won’t be able to perform tonight.

We have done half of the performances here. Many friends have left.

Our life style can be precarious. Sometimes difficult when we lose the cocoon of our intimacy. But isn’t it a reality of our existence ? That in the end, it’s the performance that is at stake, what happens on the ring each night, in our homes, in our hearts much bigger and stronger than our houses on wheels…

Bye bye Lacrimae and hop !

Current affairs

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Lucile, our office manager has arrived. She has discovered the show with Matthieu who replaces Moïse who stayed in France. She has discovered the latest little changes like that of Sébi who sets his bottom on fire and Sébas who plays the concertina.

Some other shows are on : Lacrimae which is a production with artits of three companies, Cahin Caha (France), Cirkus Cirkör (Sweden) and La putyka (Czech Rep), and in another Big Top,  La vie by The 7 Fingers (Canada).

At the end of « our » Risque zérO, it’s a standing ovation.

During the day, it’s meeting time ! We think, we build up, we deconstruct. The topic of the festival «  Tant qu’il y aura des Mouettes » (the 6th edition) keeps arousing passion and enthusiasm. Ideas are coming from everywhere. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about our future home port.

We get storms at night.

The ambassador of the USA came last night, dressed in a polo shirt and his shorts.

The food at the catering is excellent.

It’s official, Sweden loves « Risque zérO » !

Seb and Emilie are cruising on the river boat.

Lucie is drawing under the weeping willow.

The city is beautiful but its center is full of tourists. It’s summer, it’s normal. We try to imagine it with a bit more Czechs and less Chinese, French, Spanish, Americans…

The artists from Lacrimae make up in the cabin just next to us. Their show starts at 7 pm, some of them will run to our show straight afterwards without having had time to shower et get rid of their make-up.

When it gets dark, it’s time to drink a beer together.

République Tchèque vs Argentine

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Il y a un an nous étions à Buenos Aires.

Il y a un an nous fêtions ses 28 ans en Argentine.

Sous le grand saule pleureur, au bout du campement, on a fait un chemin de lumière avec des lampes à huile. Tout l’après-midi, on a préparé la fiesta surprise pour le birthday du roi. Gâteau au chocolat et mojito à gogo pour Lucho. Il a 29 ans. Sous l’arbre tombant, on a chanté et ri, on a fêté la vie à Prague en Tchéquie.

En 2014, peut-être on les lui fera souffler en Finlande ou en Pologne. Il en aura 31…

Ce soir, dans le stade, juste à côté 70 000 personnes viennent voir le match de foot : République Tchèque/Argentine !

Ils parlent d’un grand tour du Risque, une « tournée  baltique ». Je n’ai pas fini d’écrire l’itinérance, l’errance, la grandeur du monde et le saut de joie !

Ce soir, ça y est ils entament la dernière ligne droite. 4 spectacles d’affilés, la dernière série ici à Letni Letna.

La machine à fumée et l’accordéon étaient épuisés du soufflet. Luc et Gautier ont dû intervenir pour que le show must go on.

Dans les conversations, de plus en plus souvent, nous parlons de la fin de la tournée. Matthieu se prépare sans doute à quitter le spectacle, à quitter l’équipe, à quitter le camion d’Elice et Sébi qu’il a habité pendant un mois et demi.

Aujourd’hui, à Prague le ciel est gris, parfois même c’est la pluie. Nous sommes là dans un coin de verdure, tranquilles, nous faisons ce que nous avons à faire, nous grignotons du chocolat, nous mangeons de la soupe de courge, nous buvons de la bière tchèque, du coca américain ou du vin chilien…

Douce soirée à vous les amis…

21 € the ticket

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We have settled in a magnificent park overlooking the city, with our caravans, Big Top, washing on the line and Garden gnome.

We sometimes forget that all those little things that are part of our daily life can be considered a bit messy !

Here we are, Prague ! Superb and amazing city with its spectacular buildings and monuments. It’s here at our feet at the end of the little path that leads from the park to the center.

« Letni Letna », that’s the name of the festival. In the programme among 2 headliners, you find bare footed Galapiat and its show « Risque zérO ».

My friends, if only you could see that ! Actually, some of you do. We have friends and realtives visiting us and sharing slices of life with us.

Passes must be worn at all times ! The rule is the rule, the guards at the entrance are there to remind us. It’s true we are not that used to that…

And what about all our friends and relatives, who is going to be responsible for them ? It’s true we haven’t thought of telling the festival about our visitors… We don’t really agree when we are asked to make our visitors go the camping ground…

We explained to the directors of the festival « If we can’t have our friends and relatives visit us on tour be it here or elsewhere, we don’t get to see them. That’s our home, that’s how we live. »

12 performances ahead of us. A circus marathon. There’s going to be some more sweating under the Big Top, (almost) every day at 9 pm until september 2nd.

It’s a bit cooler here than in Hungary.

On the programme : between 2 performances, we’ll try to discover the thousands of churches on foot, by boat or pedalo !

Letni Letna Festival starts tonight ! One, two, three… start !!!