WILD SIDE STORY, Compagnie Off’s latest creation (2017) is a free rewriting of two works : Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet and Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story.

Compagnie Off has explored plenty of urban sites such as streets, avenues, squares, tracks, industrial wastelands and other unusual locations. Today, we focus on the big, rational urban systems’ unconscious ramifications : motorway exits, interchangers, ring roads…

Born out of the urban need for acceleration, rapid connection, city bypass, fluid access and traffic, the building of motorways and ring roads has produced urban frontiers around and within the city. As long as these spaces were left overlooked by politics and urbanism, they were of no public interest and ended up being used as a junkyard for a consumerist society and its freewheeling evolutions and wild revolutions…

The stage setting for WILD SIDE STORY is based on this geographic reality. New York’s West Bronx area translates into our own « Point Zero » : a « non-location » which is difficult to own, marking a fissure between territories, and creating lines of «no-life» between cities. Whether referencing Verona and the age-old war between Capulet and Montagues, or the territorial conflict between Sharks and Jets, the heart of the matter remains the same: the eternal human issue of possession. How can we play with these spaces, reclaim them and transform them into public playgrounds ?
WILD SIDE STORY is a theatrical, spectacular enlargement of a love story where couples, Maria-Tony and Juliet-Romeo, merge into one, as the story repeats itself in complex, infinite variations, both dramatic and predictable.

A fiction born out of reality, a show that starts in excessive normality.

The show is fixed, on a vast stage of asphalt (70m x 50m). The audience is immersed into the action, and then, depending on the action, switches to:

-    A large linear frontal view
-    A bi-frontal view
-    A 360°-wide view

The motorised vehicles’ stunts happen on the ground. Scenes that include text and the lead characters’ sequences are raised above ground.
Several characters will, at times, progress through airborne scenes.

Philippe Freslon, artistic director

Capacity - 1000 to 2000
Duration - 50 min
Location - public square, industrial area, atypical urban site  
70 m  x 50 m   
Frequency - 2 performances a day, by night
Team : 35

« Look, Listen & Be », Workshop
For its performance, Compagnie Off offers to train local volunteers through a series of workshops based on the notions of     « Look, Listen and Be ». Trainees acquire the fundamental skills to take part in the artistic act within the public space, and are immersed at the heart of the show, taking part in the performance.

> Immersion of 18 volunteers before and during the performance, to create the « Dancing Choir » in the Ball scene

Artistic director, Original concept and scenography Philippe FRESLON
Stage direction assistant Caroline FORESTIER

Choreographer Francis PLISSON  et Cécilia RIBAULT
Music composer Sylvestre PERRUSSON
Creation light Pierre WENDELS
Creation costumes Zoé FORESTIER
Costumes Sabine Solin
Comedians         
Juliette - élodie GUéZOU
Roméo - Bastien D’ASNIèRES
Tybalt - Samuel GIEZEK
MErCUTiO - Dimitri HATTON
Capulet - Thierry ROBARD
Le Prince - K’chash Ahm Pen Du
Doc/Montaigu - Xavier SALOT
Dancers        
Soukaina ALAMI
Léa BONNAUD
Sandrine BONNET
K’chash Ahm Pen Du
Michaël PASCAULT
Parkour coordination Antoine LE MENESTREL
Parkour    
Dimitri BRUGNOT
Kim CHAU
David PAGNON
Fantin SEGUIN
Stunt manager Mathieu LARDOT - Cinémaction
Pilot stunt    
Laurent CHEVALIER  
John-Eric MEDALIN
Adrien Bour
Stunt mechanic Ludovic PETIT
Technical direction  Cédric LE GOFF
Technical manager Pierre ALLIAS
Sound manager design Erwan QUINTIN
Ligh manager Guillaume DESNOULET
Stage manager Aurélien TRILLOT
Pyrotechnics manager Gilles BARA
Construction manager Laurent RICHEFORT

WILD SIDE STORY, avant-premières 5 novembre 2016 : Revue de Presse 

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