Les sept planches de la ruse (The Seven Boards of Skill)

Part of the 2008 Next Wave Festival

Nov 5, 7 & 8 at 7:30pm

Compagnie 111 and Scènes de la Terre
Conceived and directed by Aurélien Bory

"Inventively conceived and flawlessly produced show, Les sept planches de la ruse (The seven boards of skill), [is] a seamless mix of circus arts, minimalist dance and visual art..." —The New Tork Times

Deceptively simple and sublimely elegant, the ancient Chinese game of tangram moves mathematics into the realm of poetry. For Aurélien Bory, artistic director of France's Compagnie 111, it's an inspired starting point for the stunning nouveau cirque work Les sept planches de la ruse (The Seven Boards of Skill), poised at the intersection of physical theater, modern dance, and waking dreams.

Moving with heroic grace, the cross-generational acrobats and Peking opera performers from Dalian (China) transform tangram shapes into fluid metaphors of human experience. Shimmying up a ravine formed by two sky-high vertical walls, man fights the brutality of the modern world. Another teeters precariously on the longest side of an inverted triangle, seeking and achieving awesome balance. Guided by Bory's able imagination, the shapes evolve in form and meaning, shifting from terrifying emblems of political strife to man’s insignificance in the natural world. The overall effect—the play of scale against form, of human against object—is nothing short of spectacular.

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Running time: 70min, no intermission
$20, 35, 50, 60


Set design by Aurélien Bory
Light design by Arnaud Veyrat
Sound design by Stéphane Ley
Costume design by Sylvie Marcucci
Original music by Raphaël Wisson

Produced by Scènes de la Terre; Co produced by Théâtre de la Ville—Paris, Direction de la Culture—Ville de Dalian, Equinoxe—Scène nationale de Châteauroux, Scène nationale de Sénart.

Review from The New York Times
"Bathed in warm red and yellow hues—Arno Veyrat's sober, elegant lighting is miles away from the Big Top—the pieces slide against one another and topple over, forming clean lines that look like shrinking tunnels, growing mountains and teetering houses." More

BAM Interview with Aurélien Bory
Director Aurélien Bory answers questions from Susan Yung. More

Compagnie 111 Site
Toulouse-based theater company is all about the poetry of geometry and the proximity of the mysterious to the mundane. More

Anyone for Sonic Juggling?
A profile of Companie Cent Onze, Companie Hundert Elf...or however you choose to say it. More

Article from Time Out New York
A look at two gravity-defying Compagnie 111 productions. More

Bauhaus Stage Design
Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer's geometric stage design greatly influenced Aurélien Bory's choreography. More

Tangram on Wikipedia
A history of the elegant, centuries-old Chinese game. More

Tangram Game
Try your own hand at the "seven boards of skill." More