Fresque

A three-act theatre play
“In Fresque, two middle-aged individuals stand facing a module. They are Charlotte and Linus. Two friends, two lovers, two siblings? No matter; they spend time together, take turns visiting one another, work on their creations, ask one another questions, write one another letters, love one another and make one another want to throw up. And if the construction takes months, then the resulting work is really something. It sometimes evolves into a direction suggested by friends and becomes covered in trees. Now and then there are crises, but they are short-lived or recurring so let’s work it out, let’s work it out, let’s work it out like we do with a costumes or dance steps.
Time passes and the work unfurls through the ages and in the imagination. Nevertheless, it is still that personal space where, as Charlotte puts it: “my spirit resides”. So let’s have a drink because it is impressive and stylish.
And in this back and forth banter of dialogue, emerges the deception, the love, the vanity, the fragility, an infinite tenderness, a dizziness, a little death. The roles get reversed with a sweet fluidity, the visitor becomes creator, the creator, visitor, Linus Charlotte, Charlotte Linus.
We, the audience, have the delight of being a fly on the wall and to witness this magnificent exchange. So when the act of putting things into words is complicated, maybe all that is required is to leave some room for the silence that curls up in the meandering words and lights up the angles and sublime tones of the object.”

Laurence Wagner

Tour

Original Music by Nicholas Stücklin, available here.

The piece Fresque has been presented en français, in English, and can be presented in any other language (surtitles).

Press

Speaking/Not Speaking: Die Odyssee and Fresque, Katie Hawthorne, A walking tour of Theatertreffen 2018, exeunt magazine, 17 mai 2018
Mehr umfallende Reissäcke!, Marlene Knobloch, TT Blog 2018, 16 mai 2018
…eine Juwel von Old Masters, Gabi Hift, Die Zeit der Zaghaften, nachtkritik.de, 12 mai 2018
Es geht ans Eingemachte, Nadine Kreuzahler, rbb, 10 mai 2018
Fresque, Philippe Quesne, Theatertreffen, avril 2018
Drôle comme la vanité démasquée, Laurence Wagner, le phare, sept-déc 2017
Fresque, Ludmilla Malinovsky, I/O Gazette, 29 oct 2017
“Moi ce que j’aime c’est les angles”. Une idée suisse de la beauté , Guillaume Lasserre, Mediapart, 28 oct 2017
Fresque, MM, froggy’s delight, oct 2017
Old Masters – Fresque, Siss Unn, Billet Réduc, 26 oct 2017
« C’est la maison de mon esprit », Fanny Utiger, l’Atelier critique, 23 mai 2016
Contemplation et création, Deborah Strebel, l’Atelier critique, 22 mai 2016
Le dur et le mou, Katia Berger, Tribune de Genève, 21 mai 2016

Credits

A play by Old Masters
Conception, building, writing: Sarah André, Charlotte Herzig, Marius Schaffter and Jérôme Stünzi
Cast: Charlotte Herzig and Marius Schaffter
Music and Sounds: Nicholas Stücklin
Light design: Jonas Bühler
Administration: Pâquis Production
Production: Old Masters
Coproduction: TU – Théâtre de l’usine Genève

Support

Ville de Genève, Loterie Romande, Fondation Nestlé pour l’Art, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Société des Interprètes Suisses, Fonds d’encouragement à l’emploi des intermittent.e.s genevois.es (FEEIG), CORODIS, Pro Helvetia, République et canton de Genève.

Fresque has been published by Ripopée (Nyon) in 2016, 28 pages, bound by sewing machine, 100 numbered copies, available here