
Journey - Media
Performing Arts can be a tool for transforming one's perception, through contact with deep sources and relationships with others, serving as a means of awakening subtle aspects of experience.
The work stems from research in the Performing Arts, created by Jerzy Grotowski, which he transmitted to Thomas Richards and subsequently to his colleagues. Peter Brook has called this research ‘art as a vehicle’. It is a long-term research that explores the way in which attention to art goes together with the approach of the interiority of the human being. It is not a specific method of work. Everyone has a unique story, but the questions we ask may be common. Here they are based on a questioning of what life can reveal to us with art as a practice. Cécile Berthe worked at the International Theatre Company, The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, founded in 1986 in Tuscany. She joined in 2002 and stayed for 20 years, until its closure in 2022. Today, she is developing her artistic and pedagogical work, delving deeper into the process leading to expression. The exchanges resulting from encounters and collaborations allow us to question and broaden our experiences, enabling different perspectives and working spheres to intersect.
Cécile Berthe's journey
Actress, singer
2024 - in progress: Ni que moi ni que l'autre, Solo piece.
2018-21: Songs of Tradition: Open Sessions.
2012-20: L'heure fugitive (previously Chez Ève), Solo piece.
2009-19: The Living Room.
2002-08: The Letter (previously The Twin : an Action in creation).
2002-06: Dies Iræ: The Preposterous Theatrum Interioris Show (previously One breath left).
Directing
2024 - in progress: Ni que moi ni que l'autre.
2021-23: Be careful what you wish for, director.
2017-21: Sin Fronteras, assistant director.
2016-21: The Underground : Response to Dostoïevsky, assistant director.
2020 - today : Han!, assistant director.
2012-20: L'heure fugitive (previously Chez Ève), co-directing.
Projects, pedagogy, tours
Tracing Roads Across of the "Culture 2000" Programme of the European Union, with Russia, Turkey, Tunisia, France, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Great Britain, Austria, Poland (2003-06); Horizons Project, Wrocław (2007-09); Teatro della Tosse, Genoa (2008); Belgium (2010); VIE Scena Contemporanea Festival, Modena (2010); Teatr Łaźnia Nowa, Krakow (2010); Krušče Creative center, Slovenia (2010); Peruse (2010); Lisbon (2010); Florida State University, Trinity University of Texas, Yale University and New York University (2011); Teatro Akropolis, Genoa (2011); Life is Beautiful Festival, Bucharest (2011); La Fonderie, France (2011,2012); Diafora, Albino and Bergamo (2012, 2014); Shanghai Theater Academy (2012); FIT Festival and Sesc, Brazil (2012-13); Teatr Wierszalin, Poland (2013); TNB, Rennes (2013, 2014, 2017); UneArte, Caracas (2013); Performing Arts Festival, Seoul (2015); U-Theater, Taiwan (2015); Fabbrica Europa, Florence (2015); Carolyn Carlson, Paris (2015); The Soffita, Bologna (2016); Okno Theater Kana, Poland (2016); Fringe Edinburgh Festival (2016); NUS Yale University, Singapore (2017); Monofest, Medrese, and Moda Sahnesi, Istanbul (2017); Teatro della Pergola, Florence (2017); Space Montevideo, Marseilles (2017); Teatro Akademia, Barcelona (2010, 2017); Mechrí, Milan (2017); Scuola Cassiopea, Rome (2018); New Vision Arts Festival, Hong Kong (2018); Festival di Zacatecas, Mexico City (2018); Teatro Era, Pontedera (2019); Théâtre de la Ville, Paris (2019); Online Festival CICLO Giro Tradição, Brazil (2021); Art-T, Brussels (2012-23); Mechri, Milan (2022); ComTeatro, Milan (2022,2023); Il Lavoratorio (2023-25), Florence; Creative Dreamwork, Los Angeles (2024); Arts², Mons (2024); Collectief Theater Hart, Antwerp (2024-25).
Education
Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique de Liège, Belgium, 1998-2001.
DFM Formations, Functional health et Micronutrition ; Histamine and other intolerances with Dc Wetchoko, 2023.
Coursera Standfort Introduction to Food and Health; Introduction to Psychology; Philosophie, Science et Religion;
De-Mystifying Mindfulness, 2021/22.
Naturopathy at Cerpfa, First school of European Federation of Schools, France, 2013-16.
Volunteer teacher at Gatenga school, the Red Cross school, the Belgium and the European schools, Rwanda, 1997-98.
Music theory and transverse flute, Belgium, 1986-92.
Article extracts
> Extract from the notebook of Richards Schechner in Paris, 2-7 July 2019.
> Incontri audio : Formarsi e trasformarsi nel canto e nell'incanto del teatro at Mechri, in Milan.
Trailers
> L'heure fugitive, 2015, Carolyn Carlson, Cartoucherie, Paris.
> The Living Room, 2014, Macao - Nuovo Centro per le Arti, la Cultura e la Ricerca in Milan.
L'heure fugitive
One hot afternoon, as her husband naps, she is invaded by a fantasy. Driven by intuition, she abandons herself to the mysteries of metamorphosis, as she embodies the voices of French poetesses anchored in history. Stepping into her own fiction, she tells us the story of Madame “M.” “M.” because she may be every woman, and “M” also for the myth of Melusine, which means “Wonder” or “Mist of the sea.” Madame “M.” arrives at a fountain, the fountain of thirst. She travels, her soul drunk, through the matter of her dreams, desires and love. Sliding entirely into the fountain, she is now half-woman, half-serpent. Her act becomes event, fantasy and revolution. “She opens herself to the inexplicable, to give reverence to mystery.” In her anonymity, she invokes a world in which man and woman exist as One. She transforms her love into a weapon and asks: “What revolution will throw me into paradise, standing upright in my boots?”. By and with par Cécile Berthe, mise en scène de Thomas Richards.









The Living Room
The Living Room takes us home, to a place in which we welcome another. By starting from this fundamental action that can take place in a living room, we enter an investigation into how the potentialities of performance craft can both enrich and be enriched by daily inter-personal relations and realities. How can our room come alive? How can one be with another in such a way that the quotidian slides seamlessly into the non-quotidian? Here the witness has the chance to shed his anonymity, being an individual, a guest. Within our meeting a performance event unfolds, structured and precise, a living stream of actions based on work with ancient songs of tradition, as well as texts exploring what it takes to awaken ourselves faced to ourselves, the other, and the world. Directed by Thomas Richards, with - throughout the years - Katarina Arbanas, Cécile Berthe, Antonin Chambon, Benoît Chevelle, Tzu Lun Chen, Delphine Derrez, Jessica Losilla-Hébrail, Bradley High, Guilherme Kirchheim, Sara Montoya, Tara Ostiguy, Min Jung Park, Thomas Richards, la participation of Eliot Richards, Jorge Romero Mora, Teresa Salas, Philip Salata,.







The Letter
The text, which along with the work on ancient song was an integral part of the opus, had a narrative nature. The story – a story of a journey, of a task forgotten and then remembered and fulfilled – can be found in several versions throughout the Eastern Mediterranean area. The dramaturgical approach was not one of narration. As in certain old traditions, the direction was rather to re-enact the story than to re-present it. Directed by Thomas Richards, with Cécile Berthe, Thomas Richards, Per Hwee Tan, Francesc Torrent Gironella.





Dies Iræ: The Preposterous Theatrum Interioris Show
A group of actors gathers for their spectacle. At the beginning, only a man, his head bowed into the darkness. His eyelids open onto the stage of his inner world — and see! Out of the black void seemingly concrete figures come to life, answering his bidding to action: a groping research into the nature of existence, probably. The strolling players of this absurd comedy play hide and seek in the cracks of wake and dream, in the vaudeville of desires and fears. Well, their adventure may also be a cruel inquiry into the dubious essence of theatre art. And surely, these phantasms would make up a theatre company with a very peculiar conception of art. “Life’s splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you invite it by the right word, by its right name, it will come. This is the essence of theatre, which does not create, but invites.” Direction Mario Biagini and Thomas Richards, with Gey Pin Ang, Mario Biagini, Pei Hwee Tan, Souphiène Amiar, Cécile Berthe, Francesc Torrent Gironella, Geneviève-meera Lavigne (2002/03), Elisa Poggelli, Johanna Porkola, Jørn Riegels Wimpel.



