The 21st edition of the international puppet festival is being held until November 10 in several theaters and cultural institutions in Neuchâtel, La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle. The event offers seventeen shows, given by companies of various nationalities.
Born in 1985, the marionNEttes – international festival has become a major event in the Neuchâtel region and a benchmark event that shines in Switzerland and abroad. From its inception, this biennial event has been dedicated to revealing puppetry art in its contemporary forms. It is mainly aimed at adults without forgetting young audiences.
From November 1 to 10, seventeen shows are offered to the festival public in different theaters in the canton, notably at the Théâtre de la Poudrière, organizer of the event, at the Théâtre du Passage, at the Case à Chocs and at the Pommier in Neuchâtel, but also at the ABC culture center in La Chaux-de-Fonds, or at the Grange Delux in Le Locle.
Collaboration between these various cultural venues is one of the keys to the success of the festival. “From the start, we wanted to imagine our canton as a city. (…) This collaboration, which has lasted for nearly 40 years, makes it possible to offer a wide range of shows based on the technical possibilities offered by the different rooms”, underlines Corinne Grandjean, director of the festival, in the 12:30 p.m. of October 29.
Current themes
In this edition, the festival offers ten Swiss premieres and two creations. “Between projected images, objects, music, bodies, manufactured images, texts and puppets, the invited artists question our world and invite us to think about the profound societal and political changes we are experiencing,” indicated the organizers. This year, the themes addressed by the event therefore reflect current events. Trappers in the Far North facing melting ice, colonial heritage and artificial intelligence in particular are at the heart of the programming.
Among the seventeen shows on offer, the public will be able to discover “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” based on William Shakespeare, from the Belgian company Point Zéro. The great British writer has been revisited in magical vaudeville mode, with around twenty puppets in a production where all forms of romantic feelings are represented. We witness a crossover that mixes genres – the fairies are drag queens and the elves dressed in leather shorts.
External content
This external content cannot be displayed because it may collect personal data. To view this content you must authorize the category Social networks.
Accept More info
The public will also be able to discover “Arcontars arctiques” by the Canadian company The Gold Rush. Funny and a bit zany, three manipulative actors tell with verve the life of a community of trappers lost in the Far North. The show is inspired by the writings of the Dane Jorn Riel who stated that “a tale is a true story that could pass for a lie, unless it is the opposite.”
The show “Fünf Exponate” by the German company KMZ Kollektiv is also on show. Potatoes and plaster to deconstruct the colonial heritage: these two ingredients constitute the raw material for five pieces of evidence, a show at the crossroads of biographical documentary theater and performance.
Comments collected by Manuela Salvi
Adaptation web: ld/ats
MarionNEttes – international festival, various locations in the canton of Neuchâtel, from November 1 to 10, 2024.
