Julien Gosselin

Les Particules élémentaires

based on the novel by Michel Houllebecq

Archive 2014
Theatre
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Adaptation, directed and stage design by Julien Gosselin
With Guillaume Bachelé, Joseph Drouet, Denis Eyriey, Antoine Ferron, Noémie Gantier, Alexandre Lecroc, Marine De Missolz, Caroline Mounier, Victoria Quesnel, and Tiphaine Raffier
Musical creation, Guillaume Bachelé
Stage management and lighting design, Nicolas Joubert
Video design, Pierre Marti
Sound creation, Julien Feryn
Costume design, Caroline Tavernier
Bursary, Yann Lesvenan
Administration, production, Eugénie Tesson
Distribution, Claire Dupont
A production by Si vous pouviez lécher mon cœur
In coproduction with Théâtre du Nord-Théâtre National Lille Tourcoing Région Nord-Pas de Calais ; Festival d’Avignon ; Le Phénix, Scène nationale de Valenciennes ; La Rose des vents, Scène Nationale Lille Métropole-Villeneuve d’Ascq ; Théâtre de Vanves, Scène conventionnée pour la danse ; Le Mail, Scène Culturelle de Soissons 
In collaboration with Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe ; Festival d’Automne à Paris
With support from the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication / DRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Conseil Régional Nord-Pas de Calais, SACD Beaumarchais, Conseil Général du Pas-de-Calais and Ville de Lille
Si vous pouviez lécher mon cœur is an associate of TNT – Théâtre national Toulouse Midi Pyrénées and Phénix de Valenciennes.
The text is published by Flammarion.
The piece was first presented on 8th July 2013 as part of the Festival d’Avignon
In partnership with France Culture

Lack of insight? Cultural rift? Or simply a lapse in time? Though Les Particules élémentaires had already been adapted for the stage in Germany and Holland, immediately following its publication, the novel was yet to come to the attention

of any French director. The waiting came to an end with 27 year-old Julien Gosselin, an avid reader of Houellebecq and fan of stylistic challenges. He has been able to measure up the dramatic potential of this clairvoyant work, which condenses 50 years of cultural history. The book features truculent anti-heros (Michel and Bruno are half-brothers, representing two shades of modern-day solitude), collective scenes with strong comic potential (cf. a “wellness” workshop for exalted hippies), and an archeology of liberalism-associated violence (including ageist tyranny, and the annexation of sexuality and desire by market forces)... Thus, motivations for adapting the work abounded. However, what attracted Julien Gosselin and his Si vous pouviez lécher mon cœur collective, a group of actors which had already aroused interest with their stagings of works by Fausto Paravidino (Gênes 01) and Anja Hilling (Tristesse Animal Noir), was the variety of registers and narrative modes. In their adaptation, the collective has brought rhythmic inventiveness, collective vitality, and great sensibility in terms of montage. We are left in no doubt that Les Particules élémentaires, this drama of the libidos, and manners-based comedy of disillusionment, is above all an ode to the figure of turn-of-century man: profoundly derisory, ridiculous in the extreme, and infinitely moving.  

 

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