Suite N°3 Europe is about the effects that spoken words have on us, and in particular their undesirable effects. In our daily lives, we are overwhelmed by utterances that we would prefer not to hear, that disgust us, bother us, repulse us, make us angry, depress us, shock us, embarrass us, annoy us, or make us feel sorry for their issuers. What do we do with them? What strategies do we adopt to keep them at a distance? Can theatre and music allow us to neutralise them, to momentarily ward off their violence, to change and deepen the way we consider them?

With the help of a group of correspondents across all of Europe, Encyclopédie de la parole has endeavoured to search for recent recordings of spoken words that, for various reasons and to varying degrees, we are reluctant to listen to: condescending sermons, safety instructions, hate speech, embarrassing claims, verbal abuse, monologues of solitude, police brutality, nationalistic poems, standardised job interviews, counselling, public humiliation, adolescent moaning…

Encyclopédie de la Parole have selected 26 of them in the 24 languages of the European Union. These utterances are faithfully re-enacted by two performers in order to render their oral dimension and all their melodic, rhythmic, intensive and timbral nuances. Re-enacting them is a way to make their reality audible whilst transposing them into the fictional setting of a theatre.

However, this time the theatre company have decided to add an explicitly musical dimension to them: for each of these ‘unlistenable’ words we have added a piano accompaniment which makes them sound like folk songs, opera recitatives, French melodies, German lieds, Portuguese fados, pop hits or contemporary pieces. At times, the piano implicitly reveals an unexpected chorus; at times it highlights the melody or the rhythmic cadence of the words. Sometimes it imposes a disconcerting tone or even cuts loose from its accompanying function to become a competing voice. In all cases, it shifts the act of listening to an unexpected and paradoxical place.

In association with Stora Teatern.

For more information, please visit encyclopediedelaparole.org

Conception Encyclopédie de la parole
Composition and direction Joris Lacoste
Composition and music Pierre-Yves Macé
Cast Bianca Iannuzzi, Laurent Deleuil and Denis Chouillet (piano)
Artistic collaboration Elise Simonet
Choreography Lenio Kaklea
Scenography and light design Florian Leduc
Sound Stéphane Leclercq
Costumes Ling Zhu
Singing master Vincent Leterme
Vocal coach Valérie Philippin
Staging intern François Bourrier
Translation – project manager Marie Trincaretto
Proofreading and corrections Julie Etienne
Languages English, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Hungarian, Spanish, Polish, Croatian, Danish, Maltese,
Italian, Gaelic, Romanian, Czech, Slovak, Finnish, Bulgarian, Swedish, Greek, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovenian
Duration 1h30
Premiere Théâtre Garonne – Scène européenne, Toulouse, 2017 October the 10th
Collecting coordinators Joris Lacoste, Valérie Louys, Marion Siéfert, Elise Simonet
Invited archive collectors Christa Antoniou (CY), Zsolt Boros (HU), Tamara Bracic Vidmar (SL), Rita Bukauskaite
(LIT), Ida Daniel (BUL), Milena Ilieva (BUL), Pierre Daubigny (POL), Ania Szczepanska (POL), Glen Falzon (MT),
Antoine Cassar (MT), Nicole Genovese (FIN), Kim Jeitz (LU), Genevieve Leyh (ENG), Lenka Luptakova (SK), Shane
Mansfield (GLA), Barbara Matijevic (HR), Nicolas Melard (AT), Olivier Van Nooten (NL), Daniel Naami (NL), Federico
Paino (IT), Ruta Pakalne (LV), Alise Bokaldere (LV), Birgit Peeters (BE), Tomás Pereira Ginet-Jaquemet (ES), Sergiu
Popescu (RO), David Roenner (SE), Brigitte Schima (AT), Soren Stecher-Rasmussen (DK), Maia Means (DK) et Sotiris
Vasiliu (GR)
Thanks to Sarah Becher (DE), Nikola Bencova (CZ), David-Alexandre Gueniot (PT), Patricia Almeida (PT), Anneke
Lacoste (NL), Nuno Lucas (PT), Marie Pullerits (EST), Raquel Rodrigues da Costa Gomes de Sousa (PT)
Partners for collecting workshops Teatro Municipal do Porto, Baltoscandal Festival (Rakvere)
Language coaches Kim Andringa, Zsolt Boros, Rita Bukauskaite, Pierre Daubigny, Nicole Genovese, Hanna Hedman,
Milena Ilieva, Lénio Kaklea, Nuno Lucas, Christa Antoniou, Barbara Matijevic, Nele Suisalu, Bara Prochaskova, Sergiu
Popescu, Kristine Borodina, Sarka Vancurova, Gabrielle Sargent, Ania Szczepanska Judyta Steffek and Alexander Nielsen
Production and administration Echelle 1:1 / Edwige Dousset assisted by Justine Noirot
Project development, production and distribution Ligne Directe / Judith Martin & Marie Tommasini
Production Echelle 1:1 (with the support from Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication / DRAC Ile-de-France)
in partnership with Ligne Directe
Coproduction Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), Théâtre de la Ville – Paris, Festival d’Automne à Paris, La Comédie de
Reims – CDN / Festival Reims Scènes d’Europe, São Luiz Teatro Municipal / Festival Alkantara (Lisbon), festival NEXT /
Le phénix scène nationale Valenciennes pôle européen de création, Théâtre Garonne – Scène européenne (Toulouse),
Festival Baltoscandal (Rakvere), Gothenburg Dance and Theatre Festival, L’apostrophe, scène nationale de Cergy-
Pontoise et du Val d’Oise, Mousonturm (Frankfurt)
With the help of the French Institute in Paris, Ville de Saint-Denis – Conservatoire de musique et de danse and Nanterre-
Amandiers – Centre dramatique national and CN D Centre national de la danse, accueil en résidence
Suite N°3 is co-produced with the support of House On Fire and NXTSTP and European Union’s Cultural Programme