A wordless and powerful physical performance that emerges in the borderland between theatre, choreography, object and ritual. Based on Carlo Collodi’s classic novel, we are given not a story, but rather a ceremony of transformation. A rite of initiation focusing on the bodies of children.

On stage we witness children slowly being made up, dressed and formed by adults. Their bodies are handled gently but firmly, until they almost seem to be lifeless. Like dolls, puppets, objects, all of this somehow strangely familiar. The boundary between the living and the lifeless is blurred and it is serious and playful at the same time. A ritual pushed close to the breaking point in which the children are prepared to cross the invisible border between childhood and something else, something not yet defined. All expressed through movement, rhythm and a relentless hammering.

Not an interactive performance, but the audience members are nevertheless involved. Glances meet, reactions are mirrored and an experience is shared. An intensive and charged space develops where the themes of being seen, being shaped and being observed are amplified.

Pinocchio (live) is not a performance for children, but a performance about childhood, vulnerability and transition. A calm but relentless piece. Beautiful, fascinating and, in a subtle way, uncomfortable.

Alice Laloy is a director, scenographer and costume designer. She has led the company S’Appelle Reviens since 2002, with which she has developed a highly unusual scenic universe in the gathering of visual art, puppet theatre, music and physical performance art.

Her work has received a Molière Award for best child and youth production and has been internationally acclaimed for renewal of the language and esthetics of puppet theatre.