ARCHIVES 2016 / Of imagination

Director and singer Clara Le Picard receives an anonymous package. Inside, she finds a letter warning her that she can only open the sealed envelope that comes with it in the presence of a dancer, a pianist, and an audience. Curiosity and the need to share this mystery lead her to the stage, today, before us, where, accompanied by Maud Pizon and a strange pianist, she opens the envelope and discovers its contents: musical scores and indications for a musical drama entitled Ma Barbe bleue (My Bluebeard). Although he claims to have found it in an attic, the author of the letter seems intent on having the dancer, pianist, and singer put on the play. Its version of Bluebeard's wife seems similar to that of the fairy tale, but to her story is added another one about a masterpiece forgotten in an attic, if not lost for good... Performing the songs, dances, and melodies, the three artists try to find in them hints as to their origin, in order to guess who wrote them. When an usher brings Clara a record, the game takes a turn for the disturbing: could the anonymous instigator of the event be in the room?

Clara Le Picard
After studying literature, Clara Le Picard joined the École nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs, where she studied direction, acting, and singing. Following her graduation, she started working as a scenographer on shows by Cécile Backès, Jean Lacornerie, and Bruno Lajara. In 2005, she founded the Compagnie À table and released two albums with the rock band JOURS, which she created with Frédéric Nevchehirlian. Clara Le Picard has written, directed, and performed in many shows, among others EL in 2003, Du bruit (Noise) in 2004, and L'Endroit de l'objet, solo pour comédienne et vidéoprojecteur (The Right Side of the Object, a play for one actress and a video projector) in 2008. She uses her alter ego Martine Schmurpf to explore the relationship between man and objects in seemingly serious gatherings about the cult of consumption in which she invites herself into people's homes. In 2010, La Science objective de Martine Schmurpf (The Objective Science of Martine Schmurpf) was adapted into a radio play, before Martine Schmurpf split into two for Cooking with Martines Schmurpfs, in 2012. Clara Le Picard, always living on the edge of fiction, created All Bovarys in 2015, in order to understand, through the filter of timeless stories, the way our contemporary societies work.

Bluebeard
Published in 1697, Charles Perrault's fairy tale Bluebeard tells of the fate of a rich and powerful lord, who manages to seduce a young woman thanks to his kindness and gentleness, and in spite of the frightening colour of his beard. After the wedding, he leaves on a business trip and gives her the keys to the castle, only forbidding her the use of one of them. The young bride's curiosity, however, is too strong. A furious Bluebeard promises to make her join the corpses of his previous wives she discovered in the secret room, but the delay he grants her allows her brothers to come to her aid and kill him.