• Creations
    • ILIADFrance 2016 - 2018
    • METAMORPHOSESFrance 2020
    • HAMLETFrance 2021
    • WOYZECKFrance 2023
    • ANTIGONEFrance 2025 - 2026
  • Calendar
    17/01/2024 > 18/01/2024 WOYZECK Goethe Institut – Paris
    28/09/2023 > 29/09/2023 WOYZECK (cancelled) Nouveau Gare au Théâtre – Vitry
    03/07/2023 > 14/07/2023 Au-delà du visible Chantier Nomade au CENTQUATRE – Paris
    03/06/2022 HAMLET Nouveau Gare au Théâtre – Vitry
    28/11/2021 Médiation et inclusion Table ronde au CENTQUATRE – Paris
    19/10/2021 > 21/10/2021 HAMLET Le Préau Centre Dramatique National de Normandie – Vire
    29/09/2021 > 09/10/2021 HAMLET Festival d’Automne à Paris / Le Monfort – Paris
    07/05/2021 Théâtre et santé Colloque à l’Université Paris 8 – Paris
    18/03/2021 Le crime comme forme de récit Intervention à l’Université Catholique de Louvain – Louvain-la-Neuve
    11/02/2021 Une idée de nature Intervention à l’Université Catholique de Louvain – Louvain-la-Neuve
    06/12/2020 > 08/12/2020 MÉTAMORPHOSES (cancelled) Atelier Théâtre Jean Vilar – Louvain-la-Neuve
    03/12/2020 Mon monde n’est pas le votre Intervention à l’Université Catholique de Louvain – Louvain-la-Neuve
    22/10/2020 Théâtres de guerre Intervention à l’Université Catholique de Louvain – Louvain-la-Neuve
    14/10/2020 MÉTAMORPHOSES (cancelled) Espace Magh – Bruxelles
    09/10/2020 MÉTAMORPHOSES (cancelled) Le Granit – Belfort
    08/10/2020 Interroger le chaos Conference à l’Université Catholique de Louvain – Louvain-la-Neuve
    06/03/2020 MÉTAMORPHOSES Nouveau Gare au Théâtre – Vitry
    06/01/2020 > 14/02/2020 MÉTAMORPHOSES Théâtre de la Tempête – Paris
    12/10/2019 Dire Homère Journée d’études à La Villette – Paris
    23/03/2019 ILIADE Théâtre ABC – Dijon
    02/02/2019 ILIADE Théâtre de la Passerelle – Palaiseau
    11/01/2019 Changer de monde Conférence aux Beaux Arts de Paris – Paris
    03/08/2018 ILIADE Festival Paris l’été / Le Monfort – Paris
    06/06/2018 > 16/06/2018 ILIADE Théâtre Paris-Villette – Paris
    18/10/2017 > 20/10/2017 ILIADE Festival Fragments / Mains d’Œuvres – Saint-Ouen
    04/05/2017 > 14/05/2017 ILIADE Théâtre Paris-Villette – Paris
    30/01/2016 ILIADE Festival Vis-à-Vis / Théâtre Paris-Villette – Paris

  • Workshops

    TEXT

    Three workshops against interpretation
    > directed by Luca Giacomoni

    There are two ways of making theatre: by multiplication, or by subtraction. We can think of the stage space as a superimposition of signs – the whole of which will always be greater than the sum of its parts – or by via negativa, as a gradual subtraction of that which hinders the movement of the living. There are two opposing strategies: seeking to saturate the space, or revealing its emptiness. In one case, the spectator’s attention will be invited to divide and spread over several projection surfaces (bodies, objects, walls, screens) – in the other, to intensify via a process of reduction.

    While these two approaches can be complementary in staging, in directing there is no room for mediation. When faced with a text, these two different perspectives lead to a choice: either we approach a work as a material on which to add layers of meaning – in other words, an interpretation – or, conversely, as a medium to be washed, stripping it of the implicit associations that accompany it. During these three workshops, we will be moving in precisely this direction.

    > Read the full programme



    Dates

    I. The nakedness of speech
    From 13 to 17 November 2023
    10am to 5pm, at La Guillotine
    24 rue Robespierre 93100 Montreuil

    2. Words as a form of action
    From 11 to 17 December 2023
    10am to 5pm, at La Guillotine
    24 rue Robespierre 93100 Montreuil

    3. The tools of poetry
    From 1 to 5 April 2024
    10am to 5pm, at Studio Philippe Genty
    40 rue Sedaine 75011 Paris

    Price / 380 euros per person. Students and
    jobseekers / 290 euros per person.
    Information and registration: contact@whytheatre.net

    COMPOSITION

    Three workshops in theatrical biomechanics
    > directed by Luca Giacomoni

    The aim of every artist is to create a form. But how do you approach the question of form when the material lies in the infinite range of life’s manifestations? Faced with this vast and shifting ocean, theatrical biomechanics offers concrete answers. In the mind of its creator – the Russian director Vsevolod Meyerhold – biomechanics was a science of the stage, rigorous and exact: a revolutionary method of training the actor. Its aim? To free the actor from all obstacles and hesitations, through an understanding of the “mechanics of the living”.

    I discovered this work in 2003 thanks to a series of intensive courses run by Gennadi Bogdanov. Gennadi is the direct heir of Meyerhold, via the pedagogy of Nikolaj Kustov, and for several years a group of people followed his teaching in Perugia, Italy. Through practical exercises – and finely honed intellectual research – he showed us how the actor’s body, voice and sensibility are closely linked, and subject to the same laws. Over time, he gave us access to a complete and coherent system, in which the smallest detail is inseparable from a questioning of the meaning of dramatic art.

    > Read the full programme



    Dates

    I. Principles
    From 10 to 14 April 2023
    10am to 5pm, Studio Bleu
    14 Bd Poissonnière 75009 Paris

    II. Rhythm
    From 15 to 19 May 2023
    10am to 5pm, Studio Bleu
    14 Bd Poissonnière 75009 Paris

    III. Counterpoint
    From 11th to 15th September 2023
    10am to 5pm, at La Guillotine
    24 rue Robespierre 93100 Montreuil

    Price / 380 euros per person. Students and
    jobseekers / 290 euros per person.
    Information and registration: contact@whytheatre.net


    ACTION

    Four workshops between theatre and boxing
    > directed by Luca Giacomoni and Fred Voubrel

    Action is the raw material of theatre, and the actor is the human being who acts. Acting does not mean pretending, imitating an emotion or imagining you are someone else. None of that. Just acting. Living theatre as an art of action requires a radical change of attitude: stop interpreting, and learn to act without psychology or chitchat. This perspective opens up another question: how can we grasp the nature of action through direct experience? This is the question at the heart of our work.

    One way of answering it is to move the research into another territory and find a catalyst that will allow the action to be revealed. It’s like developing a photograph: a moment can be captured and frozen on a negative – but if you don’t immerse that fragment of life in a bath of developer, it remains blank paper. Nothing is revealed. The actor’s sensitive surface also needs a developer, and boxing – rich and polymorphous – seems to me the ideal terrain for experimentation to understand how an action unfolds on stage. For this series of courses, we have selected four aspects of boxing that can be used to work with actors.

    > Read the full programme



    Dates

    I. The action is real
    From 10 to 12 October 2022
    10am to 5pm, Studio Bleu
    14 Bd Poissonnière 75009 Paris

    II. Action has no end
    From 11 to 13 November 2022
    10am to 5pm, Studio Bleu
    14 Bd Poissonnière 75009 Paris

    III. The real action is inside
    From 9 to 11 December 2022
    10am to 5pm, Studio Bleu
    14 Bd Poissonnière 75009 Paris

    IV. When the action exists, the actor disappears
    From 16 to 18 January 2023
    10am to 5pm, Studio Bleu
    14 Bd Poissonnière 75009 Paris

  • Publications

    Iliad
    Materials, inspirations, research
    Why Theatre, France – 2016. For any information about our books, you can write to: contact@whytheatre.net

    The possibilities of theatre
    Research notebook Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium – 2021. For information about our books, you can write to: contact@whytheatre.net

  • Collaborations
    • Noise and signalFrance 2019
  • Biography

    Luca Giacomoni is a director, artistic director of the company Why Theatre and co-founder of Why Stories, the first creative laboratory entirely dedicated to the art of storytelling.

    After a master’s degree in Letters and Philosophy at the University of Bologna, he studied linguistic structuralism and Russian formalism with Manlio Iofrida. In 1998 in Venice, he participated in Penser l’art, règle et anarchie, a masterclass led by philosopher Jean Baudrillard, semiologist Paolo Fabbri and artist Joseph Kosuth.

  • Contact

    Luca Giacomoni
    Artistic Direction
    luca.giacomoni@whytheatre.net

    Sarah Di Bella
    Dramaturgy
    sarah.dibella@whytheatre.net

    Marie-Eve Dorléans
    Assistant Director
    marie-eve.dorleans@whytheatre.net

    Pauline Barascou
    Administration and Production
    direction@latableverte-productions.fr

    Pictures © Cha Gonzalez
    Graphic design Julie Richard & Guillaume Andres
    Web development Laurent Jacquot

Défilement vers le haut

Participez à notre campagne de financement pour l’édition du livre Métamorphoses. Matériaux, inspirations, recherche !

Un ouvrage collectif sur la création du spectacle Métamorphoses, créé en partenariat avec la Maison des femmes de Saint-Denis et présenté en 2020 au Théâtre de la Tempête.