Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival

By: Dec. 16, 2016
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Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival

The Kitchen will present the New York premiere of French artist and director Philippe Quesne's La Mélancolie des dragons, as part of The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival.

A band of longhaired, metal-heads decide that the snowy forest where their hatchback has stalled might be the perfect location to build a whimsical amusement park. Appearing through the woodland, a helpful stranger is invited into their world of classic rock, medieval recorders, and large inflatable sculptures. An international audience favorite, this three-dimensional poem is full of visual wonder, joy and melancholy, and sincere delight in human existence.

Practicing a dissection of its title, a triple anatomy of language, image and myth, this show is built as it unfolds using low-tech zaniness to generate genuine stage magic. We see melancholy, a particular feature of Quesne's heroes: those who question a world they do not fully understand. We see dragons, those fantastic and monstrous creatures that have accompanied man in all his adventures through history. And finally, we see that what connects melancholy to dragons is creation itself, as the dragon is what emerges from the creator's spirit.

Born in 1970, Philippe Quesne studied visual arts and graphic design at L'École Estienne and set design at L'école des Arts Décoratifs de Paris. In 2003, he founded Vivarium Studio, a laboratory for theatrical innovation that features painters, actors, dancers, musicians, and animals. Quesne is currently artistic director of the Nanterre-Amandiers Theatre in Paris.

Quesne's experimental theater twists our vision, putting text, music, images and stories on stage before adding the humans. Adapting themselves to the space, the actors live onstage with the detachment and concentration of someone caught in their own private universe. In these naturalistic environments with fantastical elements, Quense's stagecraft generates an ambiguously shaped universe in which dreams blend with everyday objects, modifying the conventions of genre and catapulting us into another world.

The soundtrack, which changes with each performance, borrows from Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Wagner, Howe Gelbe, Guillaume de Machaut, Haydn, AC/DC, Run-DMC, and other eclectic sources.

Performances of La Mélancolie des dragons will take place January 10 - 14 (see above schedule) at The Kitchen, which is located at 512 W 19th St, New York. Tickets are $25 and available online at thekitchen.org. La Mélancolie des dragons is performed in English with a running time of 1 hour and 20 minutes.

The cast of La Mélancolie des dragons includes Isabelle Angotti, Rodolpe Auté, Cyril Gomez-Mathieu, Sebastien Jacobs, Victor Lenoble, Émilien Tessier and Gaétan Vourc'h. The creative team includes Marc Chevillon (Technical Manager), Joachim Fosset (Stage Technician), Emanuelle Petit (Light Technician), and Vivarium Studio (Original Production).

Watch a preview for the show below, plus scroll down for photos from the production!


Originally a visual artist, Philippe Quesne studied visual arts and graphic design at L'école Estienne and set design at L'école des Arts Décoratifs de Paris. For 10 years he designed sets for theater, operas and exhibitions. In 2003, he created the Vivarium Studio Company, a laboratory for theatrical innovation that features painters, actors, dancers, musicians, and animals. He then directed his first show, La Démangeaison des ailes, based on the acts of taking off and falling down.

Quesne hunts the marvelous, the tiny, and pushes to the extreme experiences of our daily lives as well as the relationship between mankind and nature. As he did as a child, collecting insects, he now works and studies small communities under his microscope. The scenography is used as an ecosystem in which he immerses his actors into. His shows, such as La Démangeaison des ailes (2003), Des expériences (2004), D'après nature (2006), L'Effet de Serge (2007), La Mélancolie des dragons (2008), Big Bang (2010), Swamp Club (2013), Next Day (2014), compose a repertory that tours all over the world. In addition to his work for the theater, he creates performances and interventions in public spaces or natural sites, and displays his installations in the context of exhibitions. Since January 2014, Quesne is the co-director of Nanterre-Amandiers, National Dramatic Centre. In 2016, he will create Caspar Western Friedrich at Kammerspiele in Munich and Welcome to Caveland! at Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels.

The Kitchen is one of New York City's most forward-looking nonprofit spaces, showing innovative work by emerging and established artists across disciplines. Our programs range from dance, music, performance, and theater to video, film, and art, in addition to literary events, artists' talks, and lecture series. Since its inception in 1971, The Kitchen has been a powerful force in shaping the cultural landscape of this country, and has helped launch the careers of many artists who have gone on to worldwide prominence.

The Public Theater is the only theater in New York that produces Shakespeare, plays, musicals, and contemporary pieces in equal measure. The Public continues the work of its founder Joe Papp as an advocate for theater as an essential cultural force, leading and framing dialogue on some of the most important issues of our day. The Public's wide range of programming includes new work at its flagship home on Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte, Public Forum, Mobile Unit, Under the Radar, Public Studio, Public Works and nightly music at Joe's Pub. The Public is the recipient of 59 Tonys, 168 Obies, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 54 Lortel Awards, 32 OCC Awards, 5 Pulitzer Prizes.

Photo Credit: Martin Argyroglo

high res photos

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen

Photo Flash: Sneak Peek - LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS to Play The Kitchen as Part of UNDER THE RADAR Festival
LA MELANCOLIE DES DRAGONS, coming to The Kitchen



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