Vertige

Step into one of the greatest American novels of the interwar period, adapted into an immersive experience. Twelve actresses embody a multitude of destinies in this sprawling "city-play", carried by a century of music, from jazz to electronic. Move freely through the heart of a living fresco and become explorers of a constantly changing world. Disturbing.

A vast modern fresco published in 1925, Manhattan Transfer paints a picture of the first megalopolis, with a profusion of stories and characters from different backgrounds.

In a city marked by inequality, where the breath of the second industrial revolution accelerates the dehumanisation of beings, we encounter, among others, the actress Ellen Thatcher, the journalist Jimmy Herf, the French anarchist Congo Jake, and the lawyer George Baldwin.

To best convey the simultaneity of these journeys, director Léonard Matton immerses 12 actresses in an immersive setup, spread across several stages. Like a "choose your own adventure book", the audience is free to move around.

This immersion is also musical – to the sound of live jazz – and visual, with video mapping projections of moving sets, a stylised vision of New York's vertical architecture.

Manhattan Transfer blends songs, choreographies, theatre scenes, silent films, and artificial intelligence, thus drawing threads from one century to the next.

The play draws on three technologies popularised at the time – the loudspeaker, the telephone, and cinema – to evoke contemporary issues, notably by confronting them with the use of generative textual and vocal AIs.

An additional immersive – and dizzying – dimension to a play as modern and sprawling as its model. With his association Emersiøn, Léonard Matton has already conceived two immersive theatre shows: Helsingør, chaÌ‚teau d’Hamlet (2018) and Le Fléau, mesure pour mesure (2023).

For fifteen years, he has been translating, adapting, and directing major theatrical works, both classic and contemporary: Molière, Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Georges Feydeau, Dea Loher, William Shakespeare, and Ingmar Bergman.

Vincent Théval Duration: 2h45 with interval Category: Immersive live performance World premiere