Yves-Noël Genod - Insane And Oh So Good

It’s got no shape or direction, no message or maybe too many of them, it’s irrelevent and subversive, sometimes boring, sometimes utterly shoking, sometimes just beautiful. The performers have little in common but their willingness to explore and break as many barriers as possible.
In one memorable scene, Marlene Saldana, naked on high heels, with a terrifying halloween mask on, holds a plastic toddler, puts it on ‘crying’ mode, and begins craddling him tenderly. Soon, she gets into the groove of its short recorded loop, and begins dancing until she is shaking her (very) generous forms like an ecstasied maniac on a techno dance floor, holding the toddler at arm’s length.
I came out refreshed, stimulated, alive and wanting to get on stage again and be part of that crazy crew.
Yves-Noel Genod has been around for a while (he directed his first show in 2003), and I had heard of him, but it was my first exposure to his world. I wasn’t disappointed. Check his blog.
If you’re in Paris this week, the eponymous show Yves-Noël Genod is playing at the Théatre National de Chaillot until June 6 : http://www.theatre-chaillot.fr/spectacle.php?id=103. No need to speak french, the show is multilingual, and truth be told, there is less to understand than to feel, see, hear, smell and absorb.
Special winks at my friends Yvonnick Muller, a brilliant performer who lived in NYC for many years, and to Erik Billabert, from Montevideo, who did a beautifully elaborate and colorful job with the sound design.


(Claire Hallereau.)