The Giants
A very free adaptation of the work by François Rabelais into object theatre
Files & Professional Space
In the land of the Giants, people eat until they have had their fill, fart, rule in a bizarre fashion, exploit the ordinary citizens, take counsel, do whatever the hell they want, indulge in binge drinking, cheat, think in topsy-turvy ways, suddenly take off to search for an ideal, run aground on unknown coastlines, talk the talk, get cold feet, tackle the source of the problem, trigger joyful disasters, eat some more, straddle the fantastic, verge on bad taste, and mistake bladders for lanterns.
A stinging Rabelaisian satire on the crudeness of the world, in which the hopes for a better world triumph over those ill-at-ease with change.
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Minister for Culture Prize / Rencontres Théâtre jeune public de Huy 2023
In the press
Without glossing over the work’s scatological aspects, the play also deploys more political allusions to overconsumption and the abuse of power (…)
After Carmen, Les Misérables and the so tender Madame Bovary, the company gets to grips with Rabelais (1494-1553), another literary luminary, with its coarse and larger-than-life world to fart uninhibitedly and trigger joyful disasters.
What is more, an ecological-political fable, adapted to our times, chimes with the concerns of the humanist writer, a staunch defender of bawdy and fun-loving culture in opposition to the abuse of princely powers. This new stage direction by Karine Birgé sources its appeal above all in its poetic universe, its subtle discoveries, its command of technique, at times approximating the new magic, and this strangeness which means you could hear a pin drop within the audience
A political script, but not politically correct, where the flatulence rings out in response to persistent anxieties and where a solitary worm eases the intestinal solitude of the body it inhabits. Love is therefore not excluded from this off-the-wall fable and opens the script to the hope for a better world with unexpected alliances
They have once again provided a convincing demonstration of the magic of this form of theatre’. (…)
Rabelais has no limits: people belch, fart, defecate, binge drink. But with such enthusiasm that never does it become vulgar: it’s epic! The stage direction by Karine Birgé takes on this challenge, gigantic, and fittingly mastered in its exorbitance ’. (…) People laugh at the situations, laugh at the absurdities, the prevailing surrealism, titter like a child at the toilet humour. They grasp the humanist message. They are moved by the poetic touches
Distribution
Acting: Cyril Briant et Marie Delhaye (alternating with Estelle Franco)
Stage direction: Karine Birgé
Dramaturgy: Robin Birgé & Félicie Artaud
Sound design: Guillaume Istace
Additional music: Gil Mortio
Set design & costumes: Claire Farah
Technical coordination and lighting design: Karl Descarreaux
Technical input: Dimitri Joukovsky
Construction and technical operations: Claire Farah, Karl Descarreaux, les ateliers du Théâtre de Liège, Sébastien Boucherit, Joachim Jannin et Pedro Ferreira Da Silva
Illustrations and artwork: Antoine Blanquart
Administration and production: Marion Couturier
A Karyatides company production
In co-production with the Théâtre de Liège (BE), Le Théâtre Varia (BE), La Maison de la Culture de Tournai (BE), Le Trident - Scène nationale de Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (FR), Le Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes à Charleville-Mézières (FR), the Escher Theater (LU), Pierre de Lune - Centre Scénique Jeunes Publics de Bruxelles (BE), la Coop non-profit association & Shelterprod.
Produced with the aid of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation Ministry, Theatre Department.
With the support of the Théâtre les Tanneurs, the Maison de la Culture de Ath, the Centre Culturel Braine l’Alleud, the Théâtre la montagne magique, the Maison de la Marionnette, the Quai 41 non-profit association, the SACD, Shelterprod, Taxshelter.be, ING and the Tax-Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government
