Specialist in theater and dance for RTS, journalist Thierry Sartoretti delivers his ten favorite shows from the past year. Several will still be seen in 2025, a good opportunity to hurry up and discover them.
“In your interior” by Julia Perazzini
Created at Arsenic in Lausanne, a spiritualist investigation delves into the past and the afterlife. To understand the origin of her Italian name, Lausanne actress Julia Perazzini sets out to meet her ghosts. Between ventriloquism and hypnosis, cross-dressing and imitations, a disturbing theatrical journey to the summoning of a specter.
Geneva, Théâtre de Saint-Gervais, from January 22 to 25, 2025.
>> Also read: “In your interior”, the spiritualist journey of an actress in search of her origins
“Strange” du Cirque Spinning Top
The world is rocking and the circus is a haven of balance. We still have to find this balance! The extraordinary pair Titoune and Bonaventure from Cirque Trottola – a Genevan twig and a Burgundian colossus – enlist the services of a spectacular organist to imagine this “Strano” which stirred the crowds at Vidy-Lausanne. We hope for their return to Switzerland soon. Notice to programmers.
>> Also read: Extraordinary “Strano”, the latest jewel of the Cirque Trottola installed in Vidy-Lausanne
“Hecuba not Hecuba” by Tiago Rodrigues
Seen on tour at the Comédie de Genève, an actress rehearses a Greek tragedy while another tragedy shakes up her own life. By linking the Greek Euripides to the Geneva scandal of mistreatment in the Mancy home, the Portuguese director and playwright Tiago Rodrigues delivers to the performers of the Comédie Française a masterful work on the fight of a mother to do justice to her child.
Madrid, January 3 and 4, 2025. Lisbon, January 10 to 12, 2025. La Comédie française, Paris, in May 2025. No Swiss date planned for the moment.
>> Also read: “Hecube not Hecube”, double tragedy of an actress and mother of an autistic son
“Wannabe” et “TikTok-Ready Choreographies”
When pop culture irrigates contemporary dance. Created at the ADC in Geneva, “Wannabe”, by Kyan Khoshoie, summons his childhood loves of boy bands with song and dance. Co-produced in this same dance pavilion, “TikTok-Ready Choreographies” by Lausanne resident Anna-Marija Adomaityte explores and reinterprets the world of teenage choreography and delivers a manifesto on the strength and solidarity of youth. Inspired and inspiring.
“Wannabe” by Kyan Khoshoie, Usine à Gaz, Nyon (VD), January 19 and 20, 2025. La Grange, Dorigny-Lausanne, March 12 to 14, 2025.
>> Also read: “TikTok-Ready Choreographies”, a solidarity and dance manifesto of adolescent strength
>> Also read: “Wannabe”, when the dancer Kiyan Khoshoie dreamed of being a pop star
“The big snow” by Olivia Seigne
Imagine yourself in a giant snow globe. We came away with crystals in the eyes of the Théâtre de la gare in Monthey where this tale was created. There is no age to discover the story of this snowstorm and the way a little girl found to find her way. A creation that does a lot of good, by the Valais collective Stogramm based on the Grisons tale, “Der grosse Schnee” by Alois Carigiet.
>> Also read: The Petit Théâtre de Lausanne under “La grande neige” orchestrated by Olivia Seigne
“Quixote, modern chivalry” from the Founders troupe
If Don Quixote lived today, wouldn't his windmills be shaped like a wind farm? The French-speaking company of Founders brilliantly revisits Cervantes' masterpiece with a lost speaker and two oddball climate activists. It's tender, hilarious, fine and it's not fluff.
>> Also read: A “Quixote” who doesn’t run out of air when attacking wind turbines
“Biedermann and the arsonists” by Nicolas Stemann
Or “Monsieur Bonhomme and the Arsonists” by Max Frisch, played in original version. Zurich has the art of dismissing the strong minds it had wanted to run the most prestigious of Swiss theaters, the Schauspielhaus. After Christoph Marthaler, it is the turn of the Hamburg director and director Stemann to have to take the door while delivering this final coup to denounce the hypocrisies of the local bourgeoisie. “If woke means being awake to the problems of the world, then yes, I am,” the starter said.
“The night will never end…?” by Noémie Schmidt and Joris Avodo
A successful return to his Valais lands. With a slightly crazy troupe between France and Switzerland, the actress Noémie Schmidt succeeded in a show that was both festive and militant, angry and funny, on themes that will have marked her canton of origin: carnival, the Festival -God, the first Gay Pride and the women's strike. Generous, his proposal was as much a festival as a theater and a musical with an exhibition and nightclub at extra cost. Not sure that this XXL proposition can be revived anywhere other than at Spot. But what a memorable night!
>> Also read: “The night will never end…?”, a fantastic theatrical portrait of Valaisans
“The soft brain of existence” by the Foulles collective
An ode to naps, a hymn to dreams, a ballet of gentle awakenings. A French-speaking collective, Foulles invents a choreography on mattresses, an art of moving in softness and telling stories of languor and happiness to five bodies accompanied by songs (from Anne Sylvestre to Siksa, the bedding is large).
No dates yet announced for 2025, but the Collective is delivering the equally gripping “What will remain secret”, on March 22 and 23, 2025 in Lausanne, Sévelin 36.
“Any intention to harm” by Adrien Barazzone
The coincidence is striking. A few weeks after the premiere at the Théâtre de Saint-Gervais in Geneva, controversy broke out around Kamel Daoud's book, “Houris”. With his fiction, did the author steal the life of a woman who became a character in his novel? This creation by Adrien Barazzone is a trial piece on this subject: artistic freedom against the right to privacy. Treated in the mode of comedy, it is both impactful and a reminder that theater is never cut off from reality. A brilliant plea!
French-speaking tour planned for fall 2025.
>> Also read: “Any intention to harm”, an excellent theatrical trial by Adrien Barazzone
