Hidden Stories
credit : Guillaume Baptiste
Les Demeurées
credit : Eric Gaudé
La Disparition
credit : Erika Latta
La Ferme de la Colle
The company
Presentation
Since 1992, Begat Theater has been devising performances that use public space as a venue to explore private and subjective experiences, producing work that defies street theater conventions as they are practiced today. Highly immersive, the work blurs the boundaries between the real and the fictional and places the spectator in an active role.
For each new piece, the artists develop a new form of dramatic writing using interactive media, architecture and the language of cinema to tell an engaging contemporary story. Their sound walks are adapted to each different urban setting and synchronize the spectator’s movements through the town with actors’ appearances, sound and video inviting participation and exploring the role of the audience.
In our new creation HOME/LAND (2022-2023), an international collaboration between artists from Begat Theater (FR), Hand2Mouth (USA) and WaxFactory (USA), the audience enter a temporary shelter unit and listen to a unique story of a place, in order to live an immersive journey along the paths of personal and collective memory.
The company’s most recent show LA FILLE SUSPENDUE (creation 2021), is an immersive experience in natural spaces adapted from “Marx et la poupée” by Maryam Madjidi. The audience, surrounded by a sound environment, is with Maryam. She has left her country of origin, Iran, to come in France. She is two cultures, two languages. Torn. Her identities are multiple. She is still there and she is here. As if suspended.
ASKIP* (creation 2018) is an immersive theater show performed in middle schools. The audience divided in three groups follow a student, a teacher and the janitor throughout the school building, witnessing their exchanges and also their moments of solitude and introspection. The show questions the way we look at the people and places around us.
In LA DISPARITION (creation 2014-2015), Begat Theater places portable media devices in the hands of an active audience. Each individual audience member experiences the story from the perspective on an “Investigator” who searches the city for a missing author. As the audience retraces her steps, synchronized sound, images, and live action blend together, leading each spectator to follow a trail of clues that draws him inside the pages of the missing author’s enigmatic story.
HIDDEN STORIES (creation 2010 – new version 2019) is an invisible performance, a site-specific event that blends itself into the urban landscape. Supplied with headphones, the audience is temporarily endowed with the power to hear the thoughts of certain passers-by and to follow them into the unknown. The city is transformed into a sound stage, the audience’s eye is the lens of a camera, and the spectator himself is the editor, choosing which images to synchronize to the sound track being played in his ears.
In LES DEMEUREES (show no longer played), a theatrical installation inspired by Jeanne Benameur’s deeply moving novel, one spectator at a time enters an enigmatic structure, a living book that invites them through its pages to meet the characters of the novel: La Varienne, the village idiot, the one who perceives the world differently, her daughter Luce,and the primary school teacher Miss Solange, who has decided she will open the doors of knowledge to Luce.
Founded in 1992 in New York, Begat Theater moved to France in 1994. Recognized for its innovative and contemporary performances, the company has been touring for 25 years in France and abroad. Translated into several languages (English, German, Italian, Dutch), the shows have been presented in 27 countries. Currently the company develops its projects – and hosts other companies – in its Residency Center, La Ferme de la Colle, in Gréoux-les-Bains in the south of France.
Who we are
Artists
Karin
Holmström
Founding member
Conception of shows
Philippe
Laliard
Founding member
Technical direction
Christophe
Modica
Sound designer
La Fille suspendue, Voyages Immobiles, Askip*
Patrick
Goujon
Associated writer
Askip* …
Dion
Doulis
Associated artist
Hidden Stories,
La Disparition
Erika
Latta
Associated artist
Hidden Stories,
La Disparition
Stephan
Pastor
Acting director, Actor
La Disparition, Askip*,
La Fille suspendue
Guillaume
Grisel
Actor
La Disparition
Nolwenn
Moreau
Actress
La Fille suspendue,
Hidden Stories,
La Disparition,
Hervé
Cristianini
Actor
Hidden Stories
Hugues Cristianini
Actor
Hidden stories
Clémentine
Ménard
Actress
La Fille suspendue,
Askip*
Antoine Vincenot
Actor
La Fille suspendue
Jean-Marc
Fillet
Actor
Askip*
In the office
Nina
Bühler
Administation
Stéphanie
Soubra
Bookings
Emilie
Cartier
Communication
Cécile Gerbel
Administration
Board of Directors
Christophe
Gargot
President
Marie-Christine
Aveline
Treasurer
Michel
Tardieu
Secretary
Projects
- 2021 : La Fille suspendue, an immersive experience in natural spaces adapted from “Marx et la poupée” by Maryam Madjidi
Tours in France
Available in french
- 2018 : Askip, an immersive theater show performed in middle schools
Tours in France
Available in french
- 2014 : La Disparition, solitary departures in an urban setting
Tours in France (in the USA and in Great Britain in 2019)
Available in french and in english
- 2010 : Histoires Cachées, urban soundwalk
Tours in France, Australia, the United States and Switzerland
Available in French and English
- each audience member can choose his/her language of preference.
Past work
- 2007 : Les Demeurées, a theatrical installation based on the book by Jeanne Benameur
Performances in France, Belgium and Monaco – French, English, and Dutch versions
- 2004 : The Blind Garden (Le Jardin Aveugle), nightime show for public square 
English language version – adaptation of the book Scented Garden for the Blind by New Zealand author Janet Frame – Performances in Germany, Holland and Slovenia
- 2003 : Le B.U.R.O, Brigade Urbaine du Recensement des Odeurs 
- 2001 : Hôtel Eden, nighttime show for public square 
Performances in Croatia, France, Holland and Czech Republic
- 2000 : « Yourgui ! », musical parade 
Performances in Germany, England, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Korea, Croatia, United Arab Emirates, Spain, France, Hongary, Italy, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Morocco, Holland, Portugal, Qatar, Czech Republic, Romania, Sardinia, Switzerland, Switzerland, Serbia, Tunisia
- 2004 : The Blind Garden (Le Jardin Aveugle), nightime show for public square 
Adaptation of the book Scented Garden for the Blind by New Zealand author Janet Frame
Performances in France, Germany, Croatia, Spain, Holland, Czech Republic and Sardinia
- 1998 : The Clown Photographers 
Performances in Austria, Italy, France, Sardinia and Switzerland
- 1997 : Tangram, indoor theater show using the chinese puzzle
Performances in France, Poland and the United States
- 1995 : The Art of Cartography
Adaptation of a text by Jorge Luis Borges
Performances in France, Belgium, Mexico and the United States
- 1995 : Colimaçon en Escalier
Performances in France, Belgium and Switzerland
- 1994 : L’Equilibre, street theater show with film projections
Inspired by Victor Hugo’s L’Homme qui Rit and Fellini’s La Strada
Performances in France, Poland and the United States
- 1993 : The Clown Soldier, street theater show with puppets
Inspired by textes by Hélène Parmelin and Bertolt Brecht
Performances in France, Italy and Poland
- 1992 : SAM, indoor theater show based on the life and works of Samuel Beckett
Creation of the company at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland
Performances in New York and in Scotland
Press
About the show Hidden Stories :
“A great gift for someone living in a walking city” – No Procenium (USA) – November 2019
“A performance that deserves mention and kudos” – San Diego Union Tribune (USA) – October 2019
You can download the press revue 2019 HERE (tour in the USA in october)
“Blurring the Lines. Can we be in two places simultaneously ? Can we alter what is real with what is fiction ? Can we abandon ourselves and yet be fully in control ? And what does theater have to do with any of this ?… Begat Theater’s Hidden Stories enabled its spectators to enter a journey as if they were reading three dimensionally, where the characters and setting are embodied all around you. I saw Hidden Stories early in May 2013 in the streets of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, where it premiered in the US as part of mars2bklyn, an ongoing platform of exchange between artists from Brooklyn and Marseille”. Read more – HowlRound, a center for the theater commons (USA) – June 2013
“A completely new experience which must absolutely be seen… like a film that mixes reality and fiction, “Hidden Stories” is a separate category of street art… A poignant and strange adventure that shouldn’t be missed.” -L’Impartial (SWITZERLAND) – August 2010
“Reveries for solitary walkers. The city is filled with hidden stories, with scenarios waiting to be discovered under every stone. Begat Theater and the Théâtre de l’Arpenteur make them appear from the inner depths of headphones, for their audience of walkers. “Walk man.1″ and “Hidden Stories” reveal the almost magic power of sound to summon a fictional world without “distorting reality”, to use Karin Holmström’s expression. These walks embark the spectator, alone or sometimes in groups, on an urban exploration, and place the act of walking at the heart of their approach. They favor listening and “simply looking at the city” as opposed to “elaborate sets”, remarks Dion Doulis, therefore joining a tradition which aims to reveal theatricality at the heart of everyday life. They question the relationship between actor and spectator and play with the multiple possibilities of pre-recorded and amplified voices. All these ingredients make for a stimulating renewal of the urban sound walk. -Magazine La Stradda (FRANCE) – January 2013
“With a solid reputation for quality, Begat Theater is a street theater company that always creates a singular link between the spectator, the performance site, and the public space. After its memorable installation-show The Half-wits (inspired by Jeanne Benameur’s novel), Karin Holmström proposes a surprising sound-walk in the city. Equipped with headphones, one only needs to follow an orange, a newspaper, a box of match or a pen, as it passes from hand to hand in order to discover the hidden stories of their owners. An intimate, stirring treasure hunt. A tracking shot between the real and the imaginary.”“The festival “Roulez Carros” owes this surprising and interactive street show to a very original company: Begat Theater. Street theater that speaks to the senses, that destabilizes and pushes aside preconceived ideas.” -Nice Matin (FRANCE) – September 2012
“Begat Theater transforms the city into an open-air theater.” -Sud Ouest (FRANCE) – August 2012
“Begat Theater puts the spectator in a particular state where time stops, where one’s gaze can settle on the slightest details, where the mind can freely associate ideas… Begat Theater succeeds in a tour de force which consists of making public space an intimate space.” -Temporairement Contemporain (FRANCE) – August 2012
“Begat Theater proposes a sound walk in the streets of the town. The audience is not safely tucked into their seats, watching and listening to a theater piece, rather he’s the principal actor.” – La Provence (FRANCE) – May 2010
TTT (highest rating) Four slices of live, four stories hidden within the meandering city streets, reveal themselves as we choose to follow the journey of an orange, or a newspaper, or a box of matches, or a pen. These ordinary objects move between the hands of four equally common individuals: complete strangers whose paths cross briefly, before going off in different directions. Equipped with headsets, the audience follows each one of these characters and listens in on their every thought. They slip into the secret world of these strangers whom, ordinarily, they wouldn’t even have noticed. After it’s remarkable and acclaimed piece “Les Demeurées”, Begat Theater presents an insightful and deeply moving performance in the heart of the public space. An unprecedented experience, a story in which the spectator becomes an unwitting, and unexpected, actor. -Télérama (FRANCE) September 2011
“From July 20th to the 24th this year, and for the 25th year in a row, artists have once again invaded every square inch of the city streets. A piece of pavement, a streetlight, a wall… Not much is needed for art to become integrated into the urban environment. At this game four companies in particular excelled. Beginning with Begat Theater and its show Hidden Stories, the spectator, listening to a text via a headset, is invited to follow an object through the streets as it passes through the hands of several characters, unraveling the threads of their lives as they move within their interior labyrinth. A three faceted optical illusion is revealed: reality becomes blurred, the theatrical asserts itself as real, and those on the outside look on in a disbelieving way at the spectator.” – L’Humanité (FRANCE) – July 2011