Trois Hommes Verts (2014)
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English Title
Three Green Men
Director
Valérie Mréjen
Playwright
Valérie Mréjen
Year
2014
Form
Stage play for children & adults ('from 5 years')
Where staged
2014: March 8-21, Le Théâtre de Gennevilliers
2014: 25-27 April, Pompidou Centre, Paris
2014: 13-17 May, CDN/Orléans/Loiret/Centre
Duration
45 minutes
Adèle’s role
Tadbidasse. The boss Martian.
Synopsis
One night, a child's dreams are transformed into a pictorial narration while three green men communicate in an invented language and
create sounds from everyday objects. In his sleep, the child integrates these sound effects and his animated dreams come true before our eyes. Martians, naturally telepathic, soon realize their power...
Three green men
One night, a child's dreams are transformed into a pictorial narrative where three green men invite and communicate in a language invented from everyday objects.
A sleeping child dreams of three aliens traveling in a flying saucer and landing on Earth. Emerging from their spacecraft, they discover, in drawers and on shelves, objects of daily life which they do not know the use of: utensils, tools, food ... Interested, they seek to understand what all these things can be used. During their tests and manipulations, they begin to produce sounds corresponding to phenomena well known to earthlings: fire, rain, wind ... In his sleep, the child integrates these sound effects and projects himself in dreams into unexpected situations, in the midst of objects that have changed scale. His lively dream comes true before our eyes. Martians, naturally telepathic, soon realize their power…
Three green men is a plastic and sound proposal which establishes a dialogue between gestures performed on stage by the actors and animated films projected on a screen. The piece is built around everyday objects, narrative processes and an original sound creation.
About the production
Mise en scène: Valérie Mréjen
Décor: Kiko Herrero et Cyril Moulinié
Lumière Abigail Fowler
Création sonore additionnelle & Régie Générale: Simon Muller
Costumes: Sophie Lifshitz
Animation video: Thaïs Coutinho
Création marionette: Gisèle Vienne
Bruitage: Xavier Drouault
avec
Pascal Cervo
Adèle Haenel
Gaëtan Vourc’h
et
Marie Losier
Footage from the production
This video includes an interview with Adèle (in French)
About the play
“A child dozes off on his book and his eyes barely close when a flying saucer lands in his room. Three green men emerge from it, speaking in Martian language. Intrigued by the objects they discover in the boxes, they begin to manipulate them, crumple them, knock them, scratch them, rattle them. Bubble plastic, ping pong ball, celery leaf, funnel, string, bread stick, adhesive tape become the instruments for tinkering with the soundtrack of the child's dreams, projected on the screen in the form of animations. The soundscapes created live by the green men (the phlegmatic Gaëtan Vourc'h, the leprechaun Pascal Cervo and the boss Adèle Haenel) influence and shape daydreams. Show by visual artist Valérie Mréjen, graphic and minimal, Three Green Men pays homage to sound effects and their ability to bring up worlds with three times nothing. We would have liked more fantasy in the visual part. For all, from 5 years old.”
Adèle Haenel: The Boss
This is the first time, I believe, that Adèle is referred to as "the boss Adèle Haenel". In context, it is actually referring to her role as the head Martian, not her greatness more generally, but I find it amusing that this greatness was recognised so early.
"Adèle Haenel declared Lord of the Lesbians"
I am proud that SBS Australia is smart enough to recognise Adèle's supremacy! |
“Inspired by noise makers and their surprising and inventive way of reproducing sounds, Valérie Mréjen reveals the hidden side of objects in a poetic fable. A sleeping child dreams of three aliens traveling in a saucer and landing on Earth. Emerging from their spacecraft, they discover objects of daily life which they do not know the use of: utensils, tools, food ... Interested, they seek to understand what these things are for.
During their tests and manipulations, the Martians produce sounds that evoke terrestrial phenomena: fire, rain, wind... In his sleep, the child integrates these noises and projects himself into dreams in unexpected situations. His lively dream comes true before our eyes. Green men, naturally telepathic, realize their power.”
Reviews
“The three actors enchant us, like the recently Caesarized Adèle Haenel who takes undisguised pleasure in playing Martian leaders or Gaëtan Vourc'h who continues to deploy her extraterrestrial silhouette to the sound of these strange musics. A jubilant spectacle that lasts no more than a dream (45 mins), a light parenthesis that reminds us of our childhood and our night fears. A performance that does not take children for idiots but invites them to imagine the dialogues between Martians and to let themselves be carried away by dreams.”
“A playful and wacky creation full of sounds, noises and tricks.”
Emmanuelle Jardonnet, Le Monde, March 14, 2014
Notes
- This production was not long after Adèle had been awarded the Best Actress in a Second Role César Award. This play shows that she is not driven by ego, but a passion for her art.
- This play looks like lots of crazy fun and demonstrates that Adèle is devoid of being 'too precious' or a diva. This is impressive in a young actress (she had just turned 25) who has just won a major national award. The playfulness and
- Valerie Mjeren, the creator and director of this play, directed Adèle in En Ville (2011).
- One of the other Green Men, Pascal Cervo, was also in En Ville.
- Never be deluded that theatre, or books, for children are easier to make than works for adults. Children are a very tough audience and do not hide their feelings!
- Again, there is a "Meet the Team" event (16 May 2014) for community education. I just love the community engagement and education that the theatre Adèle is involved in participates in.
- Gisèle Vienne was the creator of puppets for this production.
- This play looks like lots of crazy fun and demonstrates that Adèle is devoid of being 'too precious' or a diva. This is impressive in a young actress (she had just turned 25) who has just won a major national award. The playfulness and
Valerie Mjeren: Director, Artist, Author, Filmmaker
Valerie is talented in multiple fields—as well as directing a feature film screened at Cannes (En Ville, 2011) and devising & directing a children’s play, she has also published multiple books and is a visual artist.
Developing the Sounds and the ‘Martian language’: A collaboration of director & the actors
The director and the actors collaborated to create the sounds used in the play using common objects and created a language for the green men to speak.
Sounds
“The artist and his team of comedians worked with the movie sounder Xavier Drouault to build the show. For five weeks of testing and experimentation based on sounds. Far from being silent, this play is teeming with bizarre extraterrestrial phrases, sort of onomatopoeias interspersed with French, English, Japanese or German. The two boys even won a name there: Bidasseto and Bidassat, condensed into Tadbidasse for their somewhat authoritarian commander-in-chief, who ends her orders with Eksasaute!."
Language
“We collectively invented a Martian language on the set. These are words that one could recognize, especially in writing, but which are each time bordering on comprehensible, which mix French, Latin, Hebrew, etc. It is very much in line with my taste for certain currents of sound poetry. For example, we listened to Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate. We were also inspired by Charles Chaplin in Les Temps Modernes who, while dancing, loses the headline on which the words of the song he was to sing in public were written, and improvises a real gibberish.”
An article & podcast recorded at about this time:
“Adèle Haenel: I prefer to put on a green leotard rather than going to dinner at Fouquet’s”
Images from the production
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| I love that Adèle has just won a top acting award and she is still happy to be silly for her art (& for the kids!) The celery makes great sound effects. |
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| What I would do to see this show! |
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| Taking a bow |
Adèle at the Centre Pompidou for Trois Hommes Verts (24 March 2014)
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| Adele at the Pompidou Centre, Paris, for Trois Hommes Verts 24 April 2014 |
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| Adele at the Pompidou Centre, Paris, for Trois Hommes Verts 24 April 2014 |
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