White dog

Please note: this show features stroboscopic effects.

Adapted from White dogRomain Gary's autobiographical story (Éditions Gallimard, 1970), this play takes the form of a social thriller set in segregated America. The novelist, who lives with his wife Jean Seberg in Hollywood, takes in an abandoned German shepherd. Discovering that he systematically attacks African-Americans, he draws a parallel between human monstrosity and the savagery raging in the country at the height of the Civil Rights struggle. To the beat of jazz drums, two black and white puppeteers share all the roles in this story of highly political manipulation. A staunch humanist, the writer of Jewish and Polish descent, twice winner of the Prix Goncourt, questions the making of hatred and the possibility of unlearning it. The dog, a paper puppet manipulated by men, arouses the empathy of the audience, which sees its dark side brought to life through shadow theater. Amid large blank sheets of paper whose live metamorphoses bring the book's chapters to life, the pages are filled with words, archive images and pop-ups revealing, step by step, the holes and unspoken secrets of history.


Trained in puppetry in Glasgow, Camille Trouvé co-founded the Compagnie Les Chiffonnières. Until 2006, she worked with these visual artists and musicians to explore the relationship between image and music. She trained with leading directors and playwrights such as Wajdi Mouawad, François Cervantes and Catherine Germain, before continuing her training at the École nationale supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières. A builder and tinkerer with articulated and unusual objects, puppeteer and actress, she continues to experiment, tracing a visual, original and offbeat universe in the course of her creations. Trained as a circus artist, Brice Berthoud started out as a tightrope walker and juggler with the Le Colimaçon company, creating shows combining circus arts and comedy. In 1994, he joined the Strasbourg-based company Flash Marionnettes. His manipulation technique borrows to some extent from juggling, with the dexterity and virtuosity with which he changes puppets. In 2000, Camille Trouvé and Brice Berthoud co-founded Les Anges au Plafond, a multi-disciplinary project at the crossroads of the arts: theater, visual arts, movement art, new magic and music in the field of theater. In October 2021, the duo become co-directors of the Centre Dramatique National de Normandie Rouen. They presented at the TJP The Puppet Ball.

" Political theater in which puppetry skilfully explores the issue of racial hatred. "
La TerrasseAgnès Santi, 02/2023

lesangesauplafond.fr