Aleksi Barrière is a contemporary stage and artistic director currently working in Paris. In advance of the production of Letter of Love (The Fundamentals of Judo) for Chicago's Trap Door theater, Barrière will discuss his approach to theatrical narrative, performance, and mise-en-scène that draws from two radical, French avant-garde movements: the "Panic Movement," founded in Paris in 1962 by Fernando Arrabal, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Roland Topor; and "New Realism," which had important ramifications for both painting and performance art. The Counter Cinema/Counter Media Program will sponsor a student outing to the Trap Door Theater on April 12 to see Barrièreâs play, which is based on texts by Fernando Arrabal and Yves Klein. Students may reserve a ticket by emailing a request to Dan Bertsche (ddb1@uchicago.edu) or Jennifer Wild (jenniferwild@uchicago.edu).
About the play:
Letters of Love (The Fundamentals of Judo)
We are invited to partake in a judo fight, a game of chess, a reading of tarot cards, a monologue for four voices. This war against war is theatre as seen by poet Fernando Arrabal and painter Yves Klein, in the Latin Quarter in Paris in the 60s where they never met. It is a struggle against the prisons built by the dictators of the bodies and of the minds, even when they are our own mothers. A struggle where each punch and hold will be an embrace â an act of love.
Date: February 27, 2018
Time: 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Date: February 27, 2018
Time: 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM