But just who is this important patient who finds himself at the bedside of a retired surgeon-tinkerer who is delighted to be back on duty? Which famous client has this tinker found, and what is at stake in this open-body operation?
In any case, the operation promises to be a delicate one!…
This mercenary in the pay of the oppressed and the weak will spare no expense to achieve his ends!…
Equipped with state-of-the-art equipment such as an endoscopic video camera, the latest anesthetic mallet, a scalpel, a can opener and a St Joseph’s saw, he’ll take a little tour of his patient’s tumultuous entrails, lose himself in them with pleasure, discover new, unexplored nooks and crannies, and perhaps come away with the desire to write a few more pages to add to the record of an immortal myth…
Whatever the case, he’ll accomplish his mission with a little seriousness, a lot of humor and the professionalism we’ve come to expect from him!
Show conceived by Alain Moreau and created with the complicity of Maxime Durin and Dimitri Joukovsky
Puppet design, scenography and direction: Alain Moreau
Acting: Alain Moreau and Jean Dekoning
Stage management: Céline Robaszynski
Creative assistance : Céline Robaszynski and Julie Tenret
Music creation: Max Vandervorst
Lighting design: Dimitri Joukovsky
Technical advice and image processing: Benoit Moreau
Set design collaboration: Céline Robaszynski and Michel Van Brussel
The fairground version of the show premiered in Namur on May 19, 2004, in coproduction with the Festival des Arts Forains “Namur en Mai”, in complicity with “Percursos”, a European project led by the Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon), and with the support of the Communauté Française de Belgique, Direction Générale de la Culture, Service Général des Arts de la Scène.
Bistouri / Street version, under tent
> Capacity: 70 spectators
> A flat space, sheltered from the sun if possible. A place where people pass through, if it’s a little out of the way of other shows to avoid mutual disturbance, will do.
> Tent dimensions: 8m X 8m (minimum floor space 10m X 10m)
> 4 X150 KG ballast
> 4 Assembly and dismantling aids (2 hours)
> 1 person on hand for the duration of the show
> 4 Nadar or Vauban barriers to channel the public
> Electricity: 2 X 16 amps single-phase
> In the event of a performance at night, provide lighting to illuminate the outside of the tent.
> In case of extreme cold, we have 3 electric heaters. We need 3X16 amps single-phase to operate them.
> A benevolent eye on our tent when we’re not present (at night when we sleep and during mealtimes when we eat).
Set-up time: 5 hours (general rule: set-up the day before and dismantling the day after the last show).
Scalpel / Room
> Maximum number of spectators: 130
> Stage area: opening: 8m; depth: 6m (space between edge of set and 1st row of spectators); height: 4m
> Amperage: 2 x 16 amps / mono + 1 sound circuit
> COMPLETE OCCULTATION ESSENTIAL.
Set-up time: 3 hours.
« Un spectacle tout en finesse regorgeant d’une rare inventivité et de trouvailles propres aux fantoches de haut niveau. Où l’on sait insuffler à des babioles (inertes) un supplément d’âme, preuve de la marque d’artistes accomplis.
Et au terme de l’intervention, absolument palpitante, on a qu’une seule envie: aller embrasser fissa ces magiciens-chirurgiens pour leur si beau travail.
Lyne Crevier, Ici Montréal« Le Tof Théâtre sort son “Bistouri” pour plonger dans le ventre d’un personnage bien connu des fables. Sous la toile blanche d’un hôpital de campagne, on s’épate du fourbi amassé, de leur manipulation de grande marionnette et de leur humour endoscopique. Une opération réussie… »
Laurent Ancion, Le Soir(…) Tous les sens s’éveillent pour mener notre inconscient vers cet
hôpital de campagne où se joue l’étonnant Bistouri du Tof Théâtre.
Camionnette et tente blanches pour décor réaliste au coeur duquel officient sur une table d’opération, surréaliste cette fois, une marionnette de chirurgien manipulée à vue par un infirmier. Caché sous le drap, le malade ne laisse apparaître qu’un ventre démesurément gros dont le chirurgien, à coup de bistouri, extrait nos peurs les plus profondes d’engloutissement, notre vénalité aussi, toutes retransmises sur monitoring. (…) Rire et succès garantis grâce, entre autre, à la belle complicité du comédien et de sa marionnette. (…) [ Laurence Bertels, La Libre Belgique ]
