• Photo: Richard Haughton

  • Photo: Richard Haughton

  • Photo: Richard Haughton

  • Photo: Richard Haughton

  • Photo: Richard Haughton

  • Photo: Richard Haughton

  • Photo: Jean Louis Fernandez

  • Photo: Jean Louis Fernandez

  • Biography

    Born in 1974 to parents Victoria Chaplin and Jean-Baptiste Thierrée, James made his theatrical debut in his parents’ company Le Cirque Bonjour aged just four followed by appearances with Le Cirque Imaginaire with whom he toured worldwide. In between travelling, he attended the Marymount International School in Paris and participated in occasional workshops and training sessions at Le Conservatoire de Paris, Piccolo Teatro di Milano and the Harvard Theatre School (ART) in the USA. In 1998 he established his own company choosing his childhood nickname Hanneton (Junebug) as the title for the informal ensemble. In the same year he created his first work, The Junebug Symphony which was awarded a Molière Award and toured the world including runs at London’s Lyric Hammersmith and Queen Elizabeth Hall. In 2003 he directed his second work La Veillée des Abysses, with dates at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Peacock Theatre and Wales Millennium Centre as well as international dates in Mexico, America and Australia. In 2007 he directed and performed in his third stage work Au Revoir Parapluie which had runs at Sadler’s Wells and went on to tour the world. In 2009 he premiered his one-man show Raoul in Belgium followed by a tour in France and the UK including 10 nights at the Barbican.

    In 2014, we presented Tabac Rouge Sadler’s Wells, London.

    And in 2016, The Toad Knew, Thierrée’s latest production opened at the Edinburgh International Festival and went on to Sadler’s Wells in May 2017.

    Compagnie du Hanneton

  • Repertoire

    Junebug Symphony 1998
    La Veillée des Abysses 2003
    Au Revoir Parapluie 2007
    Raoul 2009
    Tabac Rouge 2013
    The Toad Knew 2016
    Room 2020

James Thierrée

James Thierrée has had a major influence and impact on contemporary visual performance. He is one of Europe’s most extraordinary and versatile artists using his immense talent to create magical dream-like spectacles that captive, charm and inspire.

Crying Out Loud has long been associated with James Thierrée and Compagnie du Hanneton helping to build his reputation on the international circuit before his work gained awareness in France. Crying Out Loud introduced him to the UK in 2000 when we presented The Junebug Symphony at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall followed by a run at Lyric Hammersmith the following year.  Subsequently Crying Out Loud has played a significant role in presenting and co-commissioning his work in collaboration with Sadler’s Wells and the Barbican in London, as well as internationally.

Press

  • ‘Thierrée’s trademark rubber-limbed acrobatics never fail to amaze.’

    The Stage

  • ‘Dream-weaver James Thierrée is a master of theatrical spectacle, whose adventures in physical hallucinogenics defiantly reject categorisation .’

    The Metro

  • ‘Thierrée is not just a physical poet who at times appears to entirely lack bones in his rubbery body – he is a waggish philosopher of the human mind and heart who observes us all in our overblown absurdity.’

    The Guardian

  • ‘James Thierrée is an instinctual stage poet who writes theatrical imagery with a robust physical precision…he is blessed with a prodigious visual imagination that can be epic, delicate or mundane and is entirely his own.’

    The Times