CANCELLED - Strach — A Fear Song

To take back the streets. To reinvest in the heart of the city so that it can freely beat. That is what Hopla ! Festival, La montagne magique, Les Riches-Claires, the Théâtre des Martyrs and the Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles are proposing. Together they are pitching a big top in an outdoor public space to put on, for six performances, Patrick Masset’s Strach – a fear song.

Confronting one’s fear, looking at it directly in the eyes, even transcending it. Patrick Masset, accompanied by three acrobats, a lyric singer and a pianist invites us to do just that. His work on this primitive fear, deeply rooted in each of us, is the point of departure of a melding of music and circus.

All the fears that we endure, fear of loss, fear of death, fear of failure or of life itself, are examined in a production that plays on the symbolic and on challenging gravity. The female acrobat and the singer are carried and raised high while the singer sings some Leonard Cohen and Henry Purcell. It’s literally about “carrying the voice”, to make oneself heard.

Through these actions close to dance, Patrick Masset is looking for authenticity of body language without words or theatricality. He extracts a sincerity that provokes emotion in all the spectators. It’s an invitation to meet life with confidence, like a demanding political message delivered with intensity.