Performance: Frénésies

A Unique show, from Réunion Island to New Orleans - Only 1 date !

In celebration of March being Le Mois de la Francophonie (Francophone Month) and with Tulane University, we are showing Frénésies by Tilawcis Theater Troupe at Lab Theater in McWilliams Hall, 70 Newcomb Cir.
Free for members and nonmembers

About the Event:
We are thrilled to be partnering with Tulane University to present an exclusive performance of Frénésies. Inspired by Jack Kerouac, the Tilawcis Theater Troupe from Réunion Island, offer an animated, unrestrained fusion of the arts as they represent an "on the road," adventure. Experience the Twilawcis Theater Troupe's first creation and through their sensastional performance, explore the meaning of freedom. Step out of yourself and into the world of Thomas and Bilal-both written and interpreted by Florient Jousse as multi-intrumentalis Jah Pinpin layers in jazz and a bit of "je ne sais quoi."

Explore a dynamic fusion of jazz and musical theater with Frénésies! La Compagnie Tilawcis is a theatre group from the Île de la Réunion. Created by multi-instrumentalist Philippe de Lacroix-Herpin, the show features live music in accompaniment with a dramaturgy surrounding a lost protagonist as he navigates his life under the guidance of his favorite novel.

One interpreter, Florient Jousse, will incarnate all 10 characters within the story and the show will be in French with English subtitles. Frénésies focuses on Thomas, from Reunion Island, whom with his new found whimsical companion Bilal explores the duality of leaving and returning to his island. Their story emphasizes both the culture of literature as the greatest journey and a corporeal reunion with the spiritual and physical nature of the island.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to see a spectacular night of theatre and exploration!

Frénésies is a joyful ode to existence that vacillates between the dazzling and the carefree. It follows two travelers who learn how to embrace the journey and make each day count. First creation of the company, Frénésies is an initiatory theatrical performance that takes us from New Orleans to Japan, from San Francisco to Réunion… Two men-orchestras at the service of a liberating party conceived as a frenetic urgency to get back on the road to devour life, try to reach an understanding of the reverse side of things, learn fully from hazardous encounters and think differently about the world.

The show will be in French with English supertitles. 

About the performers:

Philippe de Lacroix-Herpin
Born on January 30, 1957 in Rennes, he was introduced to swing and scat by his father at a very young age. At the age of 12, he decided to play the drums before taking up the saxophone at the Rennes Conservatory. His first concerts and recordings were with the Celtic free-jazz group "Kan Digor" in 1979. The following year, the rock scene in Rennes exploded around the group Marquis de Sade, which he joined. A brilliant saxophonist, he illuminates with his talent, with his colleague Daniel Paboeuf, the Breton nights.

Musician for Jean Jacques Goldman for 7 years, he pursues in parallel many musical adventures alongside, among others, Alain Chamfort, Kova Rea, Youssou N'dour, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Ray Lema and the Bwana Zulu Gang, Bill Baxter before joining FFF for a first album that aroused vocations. Today this talented and adventurous musician has been living for more than 20 years in Reunion Island where he offers his talent and creativity to a large number of local musicians (Ti Foch, Sabouk, Kaloune...) but also as a jury for a musical TV show.

Florient Jousse began his training at the Studio Théâtre d'Asnières. From 2008 to 2010, he joined the CFA des Comédiens, which will become the current Ecole Supérieure des Comédiens by alternation. There he acted under the direction of Jean-Marc Hoolbecq, Jean-Louis Martin-Barbaz and began occasional collaborations with living authors such as Julien Mabiala Bissila, Nathalie Fillon. He continues his exploration of contemporary works with the sulphurous Dostoyevsky-trip by Vladimir Sorokin at the Festival Artdanthé in Vanves and Haïkus de prison by Antoine Volodine at the Théâtre National de Chaillot. From 2012 to 2016, he digs the performative idea with the Compagnie des Lucioles of Jérôme Wacquiez. He went from a residency at the Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon for an experimental project on language/noise (Opéra-Langue by Laurent Colomb) to valuable interpretative collaborations with playwrights Toshiki Okada (Cinq jours en mars) and Nathalie Papin (Qui rira verra).

Linked since childhood to the island of Reunion, he moved there in 2017 to join the Company of the author Lolita Monga, and immerse himself fully in an in-depth work on the history of the island, its cultures, its spiritualities and its language. He refines the identity of an organic, telluric interpretation. In 2021, he plays the famous aviator Roland Garros in a theatrical biopic written by Vincent Roca and directed by Eric Bouvron. The same year he created the Tilawcis Company, whose first creation is Frénésies, which he wrote, co-directed and performed.

Since 2022, he has been an associate artist at the Centre Dramatique National de l'Océan Indien.

Création sonore Brice Nauroy - Chant Kaloune - Régisseur son Lionel Mercier - Créateur, régisseur lumière Alain Cadivel - Scénographie Nyhama Betsaka - Collaboration dramaturgique Josée Kamoun - Administration La Machinerie, Avec la bienveillance de Judith Profil et Marie-Ange Payet - Batterie enregistrée Dilo Drums - roulèr et choeur enregistrés Jacky Malbrouck - Communication et graphisme Sarah Blanchard Dané - Coproduction : Dac Réunion, Région Réunion, Mairie de Saint-Paul, Les Bambous - scène conventionnée d’intérêt national, art et création - Békali, Théâtre Vladimir Canter.

Watch a preview below: