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IMPRESSIONS FROM PARIS: Thomas Lebrun’s "d’amour" (Love)
By Ann Moradian
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Published on April 8, 2025
Photo © Thomas Lebrun
Thomas Lebrun’s d’amour (Love)
Théâtre National de Chaillot, 1 Pl. du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, Paris
March 14 - 16, 2025
Conceived and choreographed by Thomas Lebrun
In collusion with the performers: Sylvain Cassou, Élodie Cottet, Lucie Gemon, Paul Grassin
Lighting by Jean-Philippe Filleul
Sound by Clément Hubert
Costumes by Kite Vollard and Thomas Lebrun
Creative Assistants: Anne-Emmanuelle Deroo and Veronique Teindas
Voice: Nicolas Martel
Music: Charles Trenet, Lucie Dolene, Edith Piaf, Theo Sarapo, West Side Story, Ane Brun, Sheila, Lionel Richie, Elli & Jacno, Lady Blackbird, RichardSanderson, Safia Nolin, Shy’m, Maêlle reprise par Seb Martel and Cindy Pooch, Zaho de Sagazan
Welcome to one hour of love songs, brought to you by RadioLove and lip-synched to perfection by this evening’s four charming cast members. Thomas Lebrun’s new work for young audiences, d’amour (Love), is quirky, full of clichés, and ultimately impactful. Love is, we are told, “si bon mais pas si simple (“so good but not so simple”).
Élodie Cottet bounds through the curtain of silver streamers that pour down across the back of the stage. Her sharply extended legs carve through space, accentuated by a red underskirt that folds and flips in soft flamenco style. Paul Grassin follows, with limbs collapsing and extending in odd and unpredictable ways. It is all light-hearted, buoyant and bounding, like puppy love.
The tongue-in-cheek histrionics of Lucie Gemon as she collapses to the floor, uncertain precisely who she is in love with, is comical. Giant red feather fans are fluttered anxiously to revive her. Forearms pulse at the chest and fingers curve into hearts. Romance and desire abound. Disappointment and regret too. The clichés are intentional and serve to magnify the subtle moments that challenge our expectations, like the duet to West Side Story’s classic, "Tonight," with Tony and Maria performed by a shifting, gender-fluid cast.
Lebrun gives the music the space it needs to seep under our skin. Grassin arches back — impossibly slow — full of anguish and yearning to Elvis Presley’s "You’re Always on My Mind." In the quick staccato shifts and contractions that follow, Grassin becomes that regret that pushes, pulls and drags us from one place to another. This solo is simply and powerfully beautiful.
Costume changes abound as the characters change to match each of the many songs that drive this work. Grassin, now in swim trunks and long hair flying, wraps and swirls around Gemon’s legs, desperately trying to kiss and hug them. Oblivious to the emotional tornado at her feet, she walks off in her elegant white dress, hand-in-hand with Sylvain Cassou, sparkling in his red sequined jacket.
The section performed to the song "Main à mains" (Hand in Hand) is marvellously disjointed, with odd lines and angles of hips, knees, heads, chests and, of course, hands. We witness intimate moments with little feeling, and physical connection with feeling turned on and off at will. The piece shifts gears, resonating with sincerity as we finally hear the performers’ actual voices. One by one, they tell us of their first loves and their first heartbreaks. Lebrun keeps it light with twists of humour, like the young Cassou bringing a cake to celebrate his 5-day anniversary with his cherished Coralie only to find she is now enamoured with Gaeton. Cassou, marked for life, can never eat cake again.
And Cassou sings, beautifully: "I am a man of color. I am talking of my life." Gently swaying hips are interrupted by a swift flip to the floor, heart knocking torso about like being attacked from inside. But this is brief. Hips return to their gentle groove, but the dichotomy between underlayer and appearances is revealed.
As the four dancers advance toward us in a line across the stage, hands to bellies, heads shaking no from side to side, I realize that I have been captivated all night by Élodie Cottet. It is not what she does, but the inner life, the textures, the subtle dynamic shifts of how she does what she does that draws my attention to her again and again. She is an entrancing and powerful performer.
The group begins to travel slowly in a large circle with each of them, one by one, isolated and alone. Accompanied by Maêlle’s 2019 hit, ‘L’effet masse’ (Mass Effect), the small crowd continues on its way, oblivious to the ‘stooge’ left behind. This song, like Lebrun’s choreography, was created in response to the increasing wave of bullying. Lebrun’s work, ultimately, is asking us to tap into our compassion — to accept ourselves and one another as we are.
