“The Fall of the Angels”, a remarkable work of aerobatics

This Tuesday, November 26 at the Scène nationale d’Orléans, Raphaëlle Boitel and the Cie L’Oubliée came to present The fall of the angels. A show without words, but which tells or rather shows characters trying to find the true light. Theater, dance, circus, aerobatics intersect to construct impressive images enhanced by beautiful music.

By Bernard Cassat.

But what is this black world pierced by harsh lights which wander through space to better follow the silhouettes. And who are they, these human forms hanging on their hanger which relieves them of gravity. They fly, but without going where they want, since a thread holds them back. The entrance into the show is sensational. Intense music, stripped-down images of this almost shadow theater, power of the points of light standing out from the black that encompasses them.

A world of puppets

And when the characters free themselves from their thread, they move like puppets. Permanently followed by eyes of light mounted on large arms. They seem to be constantly controlled, and are limited to mechanical toy gestures. At certain times, there are even handlers who transport them, who move their limbs, who make them embrace each other. Manipulators incapable of doing it themselves. The world presented is black, only the white skin of the characters visible. The lights highlight the hands, the arms, certain faces.

The images created on stage are powerful, especially as the intense music reinforces the vision. It moves quickly, on the ground or a little higher, we don’t really know if the angels in question are flying or walking. And this black and limitless, oppressive world retains all its mystery.

It is through the light that the grain of sand will also come, tearing up the machinery. An angel cannot detach himself from it, speaks to him, which is forbidden, repressed. But the angel hangs on.

Which will bring impressive moments of pole and flying ladder manipulation. Moments of pure aerobatics. Moreover, the show uses all the means that Raphaëlle Boitel loves and which she has experimented with a lot, notably with James Thierrée. The dance, here very marked by the mechanisms supposed to dominate these puppet characters. Mechanical ballets with six characters who move quickly but rigorously, crossing paths, avoiding each other. But also a sort of pas de deux, at one point, a long, magnificent sequence of two black bodies in the violence of a very close light. At other times, we are more on the circus side, with contortions and acrobatic jumps. And especially with the pole. An impressive artist plays it magnificently, climbing up to the theater’s hangers, then letting herself slide in a cloud of smoke. And then the ladder manipulated by two acolytes, which allows one of the angels to brush against the light. These moments full of light piercing the fog form striking images.

And that’s the strength of this show. Dystopia of course speaks to us, this future world of angels locked in the dark makes us think. But it is above all the visual and sonic flights offered by the troupe, the astonishing manipulations of lights, the details of the shadows which draw fleeting visions, the originality of the fight against the gravity of these acrobatic dancers which seduce. A very big job on stage and around it, given the importance of the lights and the music. Created in 2018, the show is perfectly established. And worked perfectly.

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