A fully equipped, operating kitchen with stoves, sink, fridge and a microwave oven is the set of ‘Cuisine & Confessions’ (Kitchen & Confessions), a powerful show of culinary acrobatics by Les 7 doigts de la main. This Quebecois contemporary circus company with a surreal name that could be translated as ‘The seven fingers of the hand’, stood out internationally thanks to the quality of its artists, extraordinary acrobats and excellent dancers as well as contemporary theatre performers. In their shows of great impact, everyday life, with its routine and trivialities, is enhanced through fiction and the fabulous, as in the case of ‘Cuisine & Confessions’ by Shana Carroll and Sébastien Soldevila. Actual, edible food is prepared during extraordinary acrobatic exercises; the acrobatic performance must be precisely in synch with the cooking time. This surreal and hilarious atmosphere is also a space for confessions: from the first, chocolate-tasting kiss, to a solitary evening with a herbal tea and a jar of jam, to the hidden secrets of the recipes that each family jealously guards. The fragrance and the taste emanating from the pots and pans or from a bunch of herbs have an unsettling effect on individual lives, interpersonal relations, and the relationships between different cultures. Everything must be cooked on a low flame in a kitchen full of secrets.
Creation, Staging Shana Carroll, Sébastien Soldevila With Sidney Iking Bateman, Héloïse Bourgeois, Melvin Diggs, Mishannock Ferrero, Anna Kichtchenko, Gabriela Parigi, Emile Pineault, Matias Plaul, Pablo Pramparo
Artistic assistant, Stage Manager Sabrina Gilbert Musical direction Sébastien Soldevila
Sound Engineer Colin Gagné Disegno Light designer Éric Champoux Scenography Ana Cappelluto Props Cloé Alain-Gendreau
Costumes Anne-Séguin Poirier Acrobatic apparatus design Yannick Labonté Acrobatic Design Jérôme LeBaut
Acrobatic coaching Francisco Cruz Scenography assistant Clara Maria Gonzalez
Kitchen consultants Mat & Alex Winnicki – Satay Brothers Production manager Luc Paradis
Technical director Yves Touchette Original music, Arrangements Nans Bortuzzo, Raphaël Cruz, Colin Gagné, Spike Wilner,
DJ Pocket Sing Alexandre Désilets, Frannie Holder Guitar Serge Nakauchi-Pelletier & Benoit Landry
C.E.O. Nassib El-Husseini Artistic directors Shana Carroll, Isabelle Chassé, Patrick Léonard, Gypsy Snider, Sébastien Soldevila, Samuel Tétreault
Touring, Development, Special events director Tina Diab Communication Marion Bellin
Inspired by the book “Young and Hungry” by Suzanne Taylor
Photo © Alexandre Galliez
Coproduced by CNCDC Châteauvallon – Centre National de Création et de Diffusion Culturelles (Ollioules, France), Espace Jean Legendre, Théâtre de Compiègne – Scène nationale de l’Oise en préfiguration (Compiègne, France), Grand Théâtre de Provence (Aix-en-Provence, France), Thomas Lightburn Producer (Vancouver, Canada), TOHU (Montreal, Quebec) Les 7 doigts de la main is supported by the Conseil des art et des lettres du Québec, Conseil des arts du Canada, Conseil des arts de Montréal
