" If you're turned on by that infamous scene between Dennis Hopper and Isabella Rossellini in Blue Velvet, you'll go wild for this." -- Gothamist
“…like the recent films of David Lynch, [the show’s] layers of potent and enigmatic imagery aspire to be baffling, disturbing and intoxicating at once.” – the Brooklyn Rail
read the Brooklyn Rail review online
"It’s about love and that place that leaves you trembling and laughing at the same time." -- Paper magazine
read the Paper Magazine interview online
“A visual gem. It was perceptive of the adaptor and director Ivan Talijancic and his WaxFactory collaborators to recognize this coldly erotic, deeply ambiguous story as a potent foil for their technical wizardry.” – the New York Times
download full New York Times review
"An incredible piece. (...) insane, beautiful, frightening all at once..." -- Theatre Is Easy
read the Theatre Is Easy review online
download the American Theatre feature
"Mesmerizing theatre for the 21st century... Balancing lo-tech with hi-tech, this production will enthrall even those with the shortest attention span. ” -- Flavorpill
“Exquisitely eerie” — the Village Voice
“My eyes jump from one stimulus to another: shifting lights, flickering screens, and semi-hidden spectacle. Watching the audience is like watching spectators at a tennis match… The high impact of QUARTET is produced by a coherent array of interwoven tensions: severity and spectacle, the theatrical and the cinematic. The doubling of performance on video creates a level of intimacy rarely experienced in theater. The live montage relies on the cinematic manipulation of space and time, rather than randomness, to draw us further into the emotional depths of the performance… If the themes of cruelty, lust, passion, disease and mortality are not exactly new, the recombination that takes place is QUARTET frames these themes in strong and unusual ways.” -- The Brooklyn Rail
read the Brooklyn Rail review online
"Accomplished performances injected the the futuristic world of chilled emotions with the reminiscence of their former beauty and sensuality. We witnesses the exceptional acting work which maintained discipline always required for the support of the concept… The powerfully conceived direction by Ivan Talijancic (…) remained lingering in the air amidst grand Festival ambitions as a brief flash of originality." -- Slobodna Dalmacija (Split, Croatia)
"The most beautiful emotion from the 2009 street theatre season in France! In its box of stories, Begat Theater, inspired by Jeanne Benameur’s novel, tells the story of Luce’s difficult learning process. Provided with an audio headset, each spectator goes alone through this installation-show. From one small room to another, the audience member discovers traces of a life, and pearls of hope... Silhouettes appear suddenly from the walls, grab your attention, brush up against you and leave silently. The beauty of the set design strengthens the poetic impact of this unique theatrical experience. Unforgettable!" -- Telerama (France)
"Strong, so strong. These are the words that come to me after the unique experience offered by Begat Theater. The solitary passages proposed by this installation of Les Demeurées made me relive the strangeness which inhabited me during all of the writing process. It was unexpected for me. Deeply moving. Thank you for the sincerity. It is rare." -Jeanne Benameur
"Between the art of spoken word and the street arts." -- Libération (France)
"Le Jardin Aveugle adventures between the art of spoken text and the street arts. A grand première in the rich career of this company born in New York in 1999, Le Jardin Aveugle attempts to prove that street theater can nourish itself from words (the contemporary novel) as much as from spectacular performances to ultimately succeed in creating an intimate play for a public space." -- Avignon (France)
"Le Jardin Aveugle is a poetic creation about the magical qualities and difficulties of communication… A rather uncommon way to conceive a street theater show: treat a delicate subject and intimate preoccupations, express feelings and not skimp on spoken text… If this approach surprises some people, those that let themselves get taken up in the story have a difficult time leaving it behind…" -- Le Cri de la Tarente
(France)
"Magic, terror, amazement… Imaginary characters, deliciously made-up, with impressive presence, perched on several moving stages, not hesitating to invade the space from all sides: in elevation, on the ground among the spectators, on a rolling stage, zigzagging, so well that the spectator never stops turning his head to the left, to the right, above, moving him or herself around."
- La Provence (La Ciotat, France)
"All the facets of street theater, from stilts to fireworks, relay themselves in a festival of colors whose creatures seem to invoke the night… You will be immerged, mixed with the original creations, letting yourself be carried by a nighttime fairy tale that reveals the fervor of its actors… A moment of pure magic. The artists are the collectors of hope in humanity."
-- Le Journal dans la Rue (Chalon sur Saône, France)
“The most magnificent dream… A stunning interpretation… When you come out the other end, you emerge drenched not only in the sense of loss and longing that Lady’s protagonist Ellida – trapped in the loveless marriage – felt for her one-time lover, but also in what director Ivan Talijancic terms “the force that gave us life that will eventually come back to reclaim it.”
– theatre2k (New York)
read the theatre2k review online
download the theatre2k review
_Citation as "the most innovative production" of the year in the Ballet-Tanz International Worldwide Critics Survey (2001 yearbook issue)
Back To Top