Director's new production explores desire and violence

Élise Chatauret, a director and co-founder of the Babel company, has created a new production that examines desire through a tragicomic lens. The work combines performance, dance, and references to classical art to explore hidden violence behind sensuous imagery.

Collaboration with choreographer and tour locations

The production features collaboration with choreographer Sylvain Huc and has toured locations including the Louvre, the Beaux-Arts of Nîmes, Lyon, Angers, and Strasbourg. It focuses on the violent realities behind the depiction of nude women and mythical figures in art history.

Examining patriarchal culture and hidden violence

Élise Chatauret explains that the beauty of classical art has often hidden the culture of violence in patriarchal societies. She notes that the unconscious imagination shaped by these works reflects not reality but the historical context of male dominance.

Performance structure and artistic elements

The production is structured in three acts and combines dance, voguing, mime, popular song, and classical theater. It draws on verses from Ovide and explores the complexity and ambiguity of human desires through varied performance styles.

First act: bodies emerging from darkness

The first act is wordless and focuses on six performers with diverse physiques. They emerge from a spherical opening on stage, mimicking poses of academic nudes from art history, setting a tone rich in visual art references.

Second act: stories from Métamorphoses and personal narratives

In the second act, performers revisit stories from Ovide's Métamorphoses, where gods commit crimes against mythological figures. They then share personal stories, leading to a final performance filled with fury and humor, echoing surrealist and queer underground culture.

Tour dates and locations

The production Babel will run from October 31 to November 22, 2026, at the Théâtre de la Tempête in Paris. It will continue touring across France through March 2027, with more details available on the Babel company's website.