• Photo: Richard Haughton

R o o m

James Thierrée
French

“It all began whilst I was wandering around Brussels’ Place du Jeu de Balle flea market, where everyday objects with interesting pasts change hands for an unimaginable future. I love objects steeped in history, I find them inspirational. Stepping into one cave-like shop, working my way through it’s labyrinth of corridors I was met by a dark recess which didn’t appear to contain anything of interest.

I was wrong.

Behind a large case there was an off white drum set, slightly worse for wear, and yet magnificent. I fell in love with it and in time brought home more and more instruments; wooden shells, steel strings, brasses, springs, drumsticks, amps, mics and keys. They filled a room. And my imagination. 

I then made the connection with another instrument, the body. A ‘body orchestra’ with all it’s branches; hands, feet, head, legs, voice, arms, stomach, back… HEART.

A new show came to me, which like a bridge created links: instrument/body and instrument/music and to accommodate it I created  R O O M”

R O O M, due to premiere at Switzerland’s Theatre de Carouge in December 2020, was postponed due to Covid, watch some of the construction process here.

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, including shows La Veillée des Abysses (2003), Au Revoir Parapluie (2007) Raoul (2009) Tabac Rouge (2014) and The Toad Knew (2016).

  • Biography

    James Thierrée was born in Lausanne in 1974 and made his stage debut at the age of four in his parents’ circus, Le Cirque Imaginaire. He toured with Le Cirque Imaginaire and its successor, Le Cirque Invisible, until 1994, and trained at the Piccolo Teatro, Milan and the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Drmatique, Paris. In 1988 he founded his own company Compagnie du Hanneton, for which, his production La symphony du hanneton/The Junebug Symphony toured internationally and won three Molière Awards in 2006. His other directing and performance credits include La Veillée des Abysses (2003); Au Revoir Parapluie, which won a Molière Award in 2007; Raoul (2009); and Tabac Rouge (2013) which won a Molière Award in 2014. Between 1994 and 2012 he collaborated with the directors Peter Greenaway (on the film Prospero’s Books, in which he played Ariel), Robert Wilson, Carlos Santos, Beno Besson, Coline Serreau, Agniezka Holland, Jacques Barter, Tony Gatlif, Claude Miller, Jacques Dillon and Roschdy Zem, among others.