A french play navigates the complexities of modern life

CHENNAI: How often is it that you look out for answers on the ‘how-tos’ of your complex life, that too on YouTube? The innovative ways to deal with aspects of modern-day life in a short video does not fail to leave a mark on us.

Discovering various how-to tutorials online, ranging from how to strengthen your relationship, how to fall without injury if you’re above 65, how to turn a Shakespeare sonnet into a rap song, how to practice rape escape with your boyfriend, French performers Barbara Matijevic and Giuseppe Chico directed the play, Our Daily Performance.

The play is complemented by a multifaceted crew of five - an ensemble of actors, dancers, acrobats, and musicians, creating a mosaic of talent, which was a big hit at an annual summer event ‘Festival d’ Avignon’ in France last year.

Barbara Matijevic, a Croatian choreographer, studied languages and literature in parallel with dance and acting. In her work, she explores the impact of digital culture on storytelling through the forms of auto-fictional performances, lecture performances, radio plays, group choreographies, photo exhibitions and installations.

Q: What inspired you to come up with Our Daily Performance?

This performance is the third in a line of YouTube performances that explore web habits and digital culture. The performers have looked into a variety of websites and online resources, but their primary interest is in body-related tutorials.

They think this strategy is dramatic and seeks to delve into the fundamental beliefs and myths surrounding the body. The performance intends to investigate the complexity of digital culture and the connections made online.

Q: Why did you think that it was important to offer animated and novel perspectives on navigating the complexities of modern life?

The show doesn’t have a single plot. Instead, it is a compilation of numerous facets of society and beliefs. Since questions are complicated and should be treated as such, the artists strive to avoid providing a singular response.

They offer a reflection of society, and it is up to the viewer and listener to make sense of it. Although everyone will perceive it differently, the goal is to provide a kaleidoscopic view of modern life.

After browsing the web, it is up to the audience’s senses, intellect, and sensibility to decide what they retain and discard. The show gives viewers the flexibility and duty to interpret and process the material offered in their own way, encouraging them to make sense of what they see.

Q: What are the aspects that you have focused on through the play? Why did you opt for these specific aspects of modern-day life?

The study concentrated on tutorials on the body because they are more accessible and don’t need any props or cinematography. These lectures also made other implicit existential tales about the likes of fear of harm, illness, old age, and death more apparent.

The researchers looked for ways to shed light on and illuminate particular aspects of these existential stories because they are always present in the relationship between the body and its users.

The research seeks to illuminate the complex and existential character of the body and its relationships with others by focusing on these implicit stories.

Q: How much of what you have depicted through your play do you relate to in your life?

These tales aren’t instructional guides or meant to be read on a regular basis. They are relatable tales that can lead to fresh insights. One’s life is not immediately affected by a tale, but rather by how it reaches them.

The audience is not solely to blame for these effects. The audience is not required to apply the lesson from the story to their everyday lives, and its influence is not always universal.

Q: How does it feel to take the play outside of France for the first time?

Although it’s not the first time we’ve performed it outside of France, it is definitely the first time we’ve done it outside of Europe. And so far, the audiences in Pune and Pondicherry have welcomed us quite warmly.

It was truly fantastic to witness how the show’s various elements have been received and appreciated by a global audience.

This only serves to further support the idea that both the topics developed for the program and the inspiration we draw from when creating it have a very universal quality.

Q: What are your expectations from your visit to Chennai? How are you expecting the audiences here to receive the play?

Something that is very reassuring and satisfying for me as a theatre maker is that there is unquestionably something that communicates with the audiences, something that transcends all cultural differences, and something that is very universal.

I suppose there will be a different audience in Chennai. And something to which everyone may connect.

(The play , Our Daily Performance, will be staged at the Alliance Française of Madras, today, from 6 pm)