Somewhere between a prehistoric opera and an alarming ballet, Empire of a Faun Imaginary addresses feelings of insignificance and futility, the inadequate means we have to cope with them, and the fantasies that arise from them. Aspiring to transformation and new futures, Empire of a Faun Imaginary is a melancholy world in search of the miraculous, asking the question: “How can we go on? How can we go on, and how can we dream again? The piece combines vocal work, visual art and moving bodies to explore our struggle with a contradictory, disordered and uncertain world, where horror and beauty maintain a strange dialogue.

Teaser Avignon 2023 Empire of a Faun Imaginary – Simone Mousset from Simone Mousset on Vimeo.

Credits:

Art director: Simone Mousset

Artists: Tasha Hess-Neustadt, Lewys Holt, Eevi Kinnunen, Hannah Parsons, with Jorge Motel / Carine Baccega / Louis Chevalier

Playwright: Lou Cope

Artistic Companion: Neil Callaghan

Cultural Theory Consultant: Macon Holt

Sound: Alberto Ruiz Soler

Vocal composition and voice work: Jamie McCarthy

Lighting: Seth Rook Williams

Stage and costumes: Lydia Sonderegger

Stage and costume collaboration: Ariane Koziolek, Anne-Sophie Raemy, Leonie Wienandts

Puppet creation: Sophie Ruth Donaldson, Emilie Mathieu

Wigmaker: Birte Meier

Tailor: Cony Jegerlehner

Producer: Vasanthi Argouin

Production and stage manager: Bryony Byrne

Stage Manager: Alberto Ruiz Soler

Assistant Stage Manager: Jorge Motel

Company management: Cathy Modert

Development in France: Les indépendances

French press officer: Murielle Richard

Production: Simone Mousset Projects

Coproduction: Escher Theater (LU) ; Esch 2022 Capitale européenne de la Culture (LU) ; POLE-SUD, Centre de Développement Chorégraphique National, Strasbourg (FR) ; Centre Chorégraphique National de Nantes (FR) ; KLAP Maison pour la danse (FR) ; Les Hivernales – CDCN d’Avignon (FR) ; Atelier de Paris / CDCN (FR) ; Centre Chorégraphique National de Rillieux-la-Pape, directed by Yuval PICK (FR).

Financial partners: The Place – London; TROIS C-L – Centre de Création Chorégraphique Luxembourgeois; CN D Centre national de la danse dans le cadre du dispositif Artistes en expérimentation à Lyon; Fondation Indépendance by BIL.

With the support of Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg (LU)

In residence at La Briqueterie – CDCN du Val-de-Marne

With thanks to London Contemporary Dance School Costume Department