Peeping Tom - Brussels, Belgium

Diptych: The missing door and The Lost Room

concept, direction: Gabriela Carrizo, Franck Chartier
performance: Konan Dayot, Fons Dhossche, Lauren Langlois, Panos Malactos, Alejandro Moya, Fanny Sage, Eliana Stragapede, Wan-Lun Yu
artistic assistance: Thomas Michaux
sound composition, arrangements: Raphaëlle Latini, Ismaël Colombani, Annalena Fröhlich, Louis-Clément Da Costa
light design: Tom Visser
costume design: Gabriela Carrizo, Franck Chartier, Seoljin Kim, Yichun Liu, Louis-Clément Da Costa
set design: Gabriela Carrizo, Justine Bougerol
tour manager: Thomas Michaux
production manager: An Van Der Donckt
communication manager: Sébastien Parizel
company manager: Veerle Mans

duration: 75’
premiere: GREC Festival, Barselona, 2020

production: Peeping Tom
co-production: Opéra National de Paris, Opéra de Lille, Tanz Köln, Göteborg Dance and Theatre Festival, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, deSingel Antwerp, GREC Festival de Barcelona, Festival Aperto/Fondazione I Teatri (Reggio Emilia), Torinodanza Festival/Teatro Stabile di Torino–Teatro Nazionale (Turin), Dampfzentrale Bern

With the support of the Flemish authorities. “Diptych” was created with the support of the Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government.

In Diptych: “The missing door” and “The Lost Room”, several characters are evolving in spaces from which they cannot escape. They set out to seek an ideal, they left with a dream and with hope. Now, they keep wandering throughout a mysterious and macabre labyrinth in which they are lost. The characters live between reality and what’s imagined, guided by natural forces that lead them to an uncertain destiny. Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier create a disturbing, dark and enclosed world – typical in the work of Peeping Tom, while at the same time putting a unique and extreme language of movement and performance at the centre of the pieces. Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier wanted to break the linearity of time by mixing the past, the present and the future. In that sense, memories and premonitions are very important. Memories are often not a literal reproduction of the past, but rely on constructive processes prone to error and distortion. We think we remember correctly, but then it turns out we’ve given shape to a story as we see it in present or even future times. Here, present and future events are capable of influencing the past, our memories and our ability to remember. Each part of the diptych has its own unique setting and evokes a film set. The missing door is set in a room or hallway filled with doors that won’t open. The action in “The Lost Room” happens in a cabin on a ship, focusing on the interior world of the characters. The scenic changes between the piece are carried out in plain sight and become a part of the performance, as if it were a live film editing.

Born in Argentina in 1970, Gabriela Carrizo started dancing at a multidisciplinary school when she was 10. Until the age of 19 she dances and creates her first choreographies with the University for Ballet in Córdoba. She moves to Brussels to work with Caroline Marcadé and within next few years she is engaged in different projects in Paris and Brussels. In 1994 she creates solo “Et tutto sara d’ombra et di caline” and from 1995, she works with Alain Platel for the performances “La Tristeza Complice” and “Iets op Bach”. Furthermore, she works with Needcompany for the production “Images of affection” and with Alain Platel she creates the choreography for the opera ”Wolf”. In 2000, she establishes the dance theatre company Peeping Tom with Franck Chartier. Their first productions were “Caravana” and “Une Vie Inutile”. From 2002 to 2007, they created the famous trilogy “Le Jardin” (2002), “Le Salon” (2004) and “Le Sous Sol” (2007). The trilogy was followed by “32 rue Vandenbranden” (2009) and “A Louer“ (2011). In 2013, Carizo created “The missing door” for NDT 1. Later she directed “Moeder”, as part of the trilogy about the family, starting with “Vader” and ending with “Kind”. The performances “A Louer”, “32 rue Vandenbranden” and “Vader” were presented at the Belgrade Dance Festival.

Born in France in 1967, Franck Chartier started dancing at the age of 11. He trained ballet at Rosella Hightower’s Dance Center in Cannes until 1986. At the age of 19, he joins Maurice Béjart’s Ballet of XX Century in Brussels and moves to Switzerland, where he stays until 1989. After that, he works with Angelin Preljocaj and creates the show “Le spectre de la Rose” at the Paris Opera. In 1994 he moves to Brussels to work with Rosas. Together with Alain Platel he creates “Iets op Bach”, which inspires him to continue his own work. In 2000 he establishes the dance company Peeping Tom, together with Gabriela Carrizo. They create “Caravana”, “Une vie Inutile”, the acclaimed trilogy “Le Jardin” (2002), “Le Salon” (2004) and “Le Sous Sol” (2007), followed by “32 rue Vandenbranden“ (2009) and “A Louer“ (2011).  With “Vader“, Peeping Tom was developing second trilogy, centered around the family members. This first leg is directed by Franck Chartier. In collaboration with NDT 1 and following Carrizo’s “The missing door“, Chartier directed “The Lost Room“ in 2015. 

In a little over ten years, Peeping Tom has grown from an ad-hoc collective that met during a production by Alain Platel and, with scarce resources, created a surprising production (“Caravane“, 1999), to an established company with national and international renown. The trilogy consisting of “Le Jardin“ (2001), “Le Salon“ (2004) and “Le Sous Sol“ (2007), as well as “32 rue Vandenbranden“ (2009) and “A Louer“ (2011) are international co-productions that have been received with enthusiasm by press and audiences alike, and have toured extensively. At the core of Peeping Tom are its artistic directors Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier. Gathered around them is a group of highly diverse artists with whom they have formed long-term collaborative arrangements. Their wide-ranging interests, together with the distinctiveness of their performers, create a highly original cross-disciplinary choreographic language. Given their background in dance, movement and image are the most important means of involving the audience in the intimacy on stage. Carrizo and Chartier define this intimacy as the rendering visible of and zooming in upon that which is invisible, which at first sight appears insignificant, and which is essential but denied or glossed over. The human condition is at the core of Peeping Tom’s artistic project. The productions involve the staging of parallel worlds, discontinuous universes, in which the customary logic of time, space and atmosphere is disrupted.

A dazzling, extravagant experience!
© Haarlems Dagblad

A surreal thriller which makes “Twin Peaks” feel like a walk in the park. Extraordinary how Carrizo depicts derailment in a physical way, touching upon our deepest fears and turning the whole into a hallucinatory trip.
© Trouw

Carrizo doesn’t just make dance theater, she makes a unique theater experience
© Theaterkrant