In La vieille dame et le serpent, Mouzet Tagawa uses theatrical machinery to question the concept of ‘institution’. How do we inhabit the institution, and how does the institution inhabit us? What exactly happens when we enter it and when we leave it? Three people share the stage: Claire Rappin, a clown enthusiast whose personal story runs through a healthcare structure, Guillaume Papachristou, a person with cerebral palsy whose routine has long been regulated by an institutional framework, and Bastien Montes, an actor and personal assistant to Papachristou. La vieille dame et le serpent is a poem for the stage in which the set is also a central character. In a dance of theatrical canvases manipulated by visible stagehands, the set becomes an instrument symbolising both the social and healthcare fabric. The result is a theatrical piece that is undeniably visual, formal and committed, questioning social and theatrical conventions.

Proche Quartier (BE/FR)

Brussels-based director and scenographer Nicolas Mouzet Tagawa combines politics with a reflection on the theatrical form. Active in the voluntary sector, particularly in exploring alternatives to institutional psychiatry, he is fascinated by the power of theatre as a machine for creating other realities.