Œil pour Œil

A ballet thriller...
This ballet is set in a thriller-like context, creating a "dark fairytale" which integrates multimedia effects and is full of surprises and suspense.

"The new century is one of surveillance: everyone spies, everyone is spied upon. Everyone is an exhibitionist, everyone is observed. The omipresence of surveillance cameras, webcams, control centres and televisual artifice is the symptom of a dissolution of social links, of a generalisation of solitude. The gaze moves without cease, and its supremacy renders other forms of contact between humans difficult. The image is our modern idol, and its circulation is accompanied, and echoed, by that of money. One kills and sells oneself for images; fortunes are built on them even as lives are destroyed. It is in this mix - at once exciting and appalling - that the characters from Oeil pour oeil flourish. With costumes by Jérôme Kaplan and lighting by Dominique Drillot, the choreography rekindles the magical and playful spirit already evident in Bêtes noires. The thriller - with its specific codes, the attention that it draws to the interior rather than the exterior - is a privileged instrument of exploration of the dark edges of our civilisation, where conventions are shattered, where beings metamorphose, where the ambiguity of social and human relations shows itself in a cruel light, as in a dream: a dark fairytale." Jean-Marie Laclavetine

THE PLOT:
Once upon a time there were three inseparable friends: Iris, Adam and Loup. Saved from the slums of the city by the beautiful Iris, both boys fall in love with the same woman. But Iris chooses Adam and the trinity the young people formed is shattered. Loup withdraws and takes refuge in the arms of La Pieuvre [The Octopus], an erotomaniac gangster who reigns over a bestiary of corrupt Monsters and Police dogs. The city holds no secrets for La Pieuvre who monitors its every nook and cranny from her surveillance screens.
Time has passed but Loup is still haunted by the memory of Iris whose lovemaking with Adam he has spied on from behind a screen. Unable to stand any more of this happiness from which he is excluded, Loup sets a trap for his old rival to get rid of him. He gives him a valuable case which he stole from La Pieuvre. The hunt for the two lovers then begins until its tragic denouement.

Choreography and direction: Jean-Christophe Maillot
Libretto: Jean-Marie Laclavetine
Music: Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Part, Keith Jarrett
Scenography and costumes: Jérôme Kaplan
Lighting: Dominique Drillot
Duration: 1h15

Premiere held on April 14th 2001, Grimaldi Forum Monaco