All is well in America

Drums and live electronics: Steve Argüelles / Narration, vocals, electronics and multiple characters: D' de Kabal / Piano, keyboards, electronics, vocals, narration: Benoît Delbecq / Narration, vocals, keyboard, multiple characters: Irène Jacob / Gospel vocals, narration: Ursuline Kairson / Slam, narration, keyboards, electronics: Mike Ladd / Guitars, electronics, vocals, narration: Franco Mannara

LE MAGAZINE LITTERAIRE: “…In an excellent scenography by Éric Vernhes, seven actors and musicians tell, sing and play various stories of the founding of the United States of America. These stories of the founding are stories of destruction. That of Christopher Columbus only enthuses about the kindness of the Indians to better program their subjection and their evangelization. That of Catherine Weldon tells how the young artist, having taken the side of Sitting Bull, was ostracized by the white community. We then relive Robert Altman's anti-western, McCabe & Mrs Miller, the prophetic delusions of the Ku-Klux-Klan, the rules of racial segregation, the forced adaptation of Sicilian immigrants… Each performer divides his own voice, in fact playing contradictory tones and sonorities. No two voices are alike. We move from one to the other cheerfully, sometimes at breakneck speed, on the verge of superposition, just as we move just as quickly from French to English with surtitles and to English without surtitles, from spoken word to slam, from slam to gospel and from gospel to cabaret singing. Here, unlike Lepage's show, nothing coincides. This non-coincidence takes the side of individuals. Each figure visited and almost immediately abandoned moves, through the combined grace of the story and the vocal and bodily commitment of the storyteller-singer. Everything, even the images projected on the screen set up behind the musicians' space, is first the object of an extraordinary rhythmic work. This permanent and mobile discontinuity is skillfully orchestrated for the future. This is how, in any case, Benoît Delbecq describes his project: "Gospel to come, re-imagined baroque, rap of tomorrow, jazz of the day after tomorrow, soul songs of the future remixed on the spot, post-contemporary spoken-word..."

RHINOCEROS – Cecile Maslakian “… Nothing is more electrifying than the presence of Ursuline Kairson who lives and sings gospel as she breathes. And what strength emerges from Mike Ladd’s serious slams denouncing violence and fear! The eye is also in the party. The staging is brilliant in every sense of the word and Eric Vernhes’ projections literally inhabit the stage. Very inspired, his images palpitate, crackle and radiate the scene.”