"Wordless, surprising, arousing laughter and fear,
Les Sages Fous' shows feature the most fantastical
the most fantastical creatures of our imagination."
Le Devoir, Isabelle Porter, Montreal, Quebec, 2005
This show is currently unavailable for tour.
The little HMS Bizzarium scours the seven seas to track down chimeras and other aquatic creatures in their natural habitat.
Streets turn into canals, a fjord opens up between buildings. An old man on a bench becomes a sea mammal on the shore. As the boat pitches on the waves of tarmac, a school of fish wriggles in its wake. The two explorers dive into the depths of an abyssal fishbowl.
Dreamlike archaeology in an underwater city. Intoxicated by the depths, they discover the wreck of their own ship.
The mission statement is clear. Discover the creatures that lurk beneath our dreams. Capture the treasures of the unknown. Survive to tell the tale.
Staging, masks and puppets - South Miller
Puppet tamer - Jacob Brindamour
Mechanisms and trinketmaking - Sylvain Longpré
Construction assistance - Henri Morrissette and Art Miller
Music - Christian Laflamme
Jury Prize
39th International Puppet Theatre Festival PIF
Zagreb, Croatia, 2006
Arts de la scène Prize / Creation
Culture Mauricie
Trois-Rivières, Québec, 2006
"...of rare beauty and manipulation, crossing the street performance with the castelet, while reviving the cabinet of curiosities, mixing the incongruous with the trivial, the domestic with the marvelous..."
Les Cahiers du Théâtre Français
Ludovic Fouquet
National Arts Centre
Ottawa, Canada, 2006
BIZZARIUM: AQUARIUM was part of the official selection of
84 international festivals in 24 countries, including:
Puppets in the Green Mountains, Vermont, USA
FETA Festival - Gdansk, Poland
Macao Arts Festival - Macao, China
Materinka Festival - Liberec, Czech Republic
la Fira de Tàrrega - Tàrrega, Spain
Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes - Charleville-Mézières, France
La Strada - Graz, Austria
International Festival of Puppetry Art - Bielsko-Biala, Poland
Mimos - Périgueux, France
Festival RenaissanceS - Bar-le-Duc, France
Mooi Weer Spelen - Delft, Netherlands
Les trois jours de Casteliers - Montreal, Quebec
Festival Petits Bonheurs - Montreal, Quebec
Festival Zones Théâtrales (National Arts Centre), Ottawa, Canada
Between 2006 and 2008,
Bizzarium was the most widely presented Quebec theater show in the world, according to the Centre de recherche interuniversitaire sur la littérature et la culture québécoises (CRILCQ) in Le théâtre québécois hors Québec.
- Watch a a 8 minute excerpt
of Bizzarium; Aquarium filmed in Trois-Rivières in 2006
Mobirise