Matteo Sedda had mentioned them to me during a meeting at the Ridotto of Teatro Verdi, on the occasion of his performance Hear Me Moo. His tone was enthusiastic: “Within Jan Fabre’s group they are unmatched masters. They’re always an example: super‑professional artists with enormous creative imagination; of course, they don’t always follow the rules, but they seek contact with the audience in every possible way, through powerful gestures and human intensity.”
He was speaking of the duo Annabelle Chambon and Cédric Charron, for over twenty years key figures of the company Troubleyn/Jan Fabre, recently engaged in Antwerp in the festival marking the collective’s fortieth anniversary, The Poetry of Resistance. Annabelle and Cédric extend Fabre’s legacy. She trained at the Conservatory of Music and Dance in Lyon; he at the School of Contemporary Dance in Brussels. They have often worked together, alongside Fabre in celebrated productions such as Mount Olympus. To Glorify the Cult of Tragedy (2015), a 24‑hour exploration of Greek tragedy, while also developing work with their own company.
We will have the chance to see, hear, and follow them on March 27 at Teatro del Parco in Mestre as part of the You Theatre Dance ~ Independent Music series, in the performance SSSSSSSWELL. Humor and irony do not hide the stark reflection on – and exposure of – the cult of wellness and the body, targeted by marketing campaigns. I’d like to borrow a comment from a friend of theirs, also part of the Fabre group, the irreverent and captivating Irene Urciuoli: “It is precisely in the repetition to physical and mental exhaustion that performers can truly let go, freeing themselves from any mask. Performers do not act out fatigue – they live it with every cell of their body.” Let’s get ready.

I think of Jan Fabre and Body, Body on the Wall… In the end, it’s a reflection on the relationship with others and with the audience. In the current phase of creating your performances, what role do you give to the audience?
The audience holds a central place in our work. Our artistic urgency stems from the need to consider them not merely as passive spectators but as accomplices, living bodies entering direct relation with ours. Whether as actors or as voyeurs, we want them to take part in an action achieved through the body itself–an encounter to be perceived, felt, lived. For years the body was our battlefield on Fabre’s stages; today, it is the spectators’ bodies that stand at the centre of our focus.

The performance we will see, SSSSSSSWELL (but why seven “S”s?), was highly participatory in Talence and Bordeaux. Will the format remain the same at Teatro del Parco? What should the audience expect?
The seven “S’s” come from Bob Fosse, who in Stanley Donen’s The Little Prince (1974) plays the Snake and performs the song A Snake in the Grass. The reference also recalls the meeting between the Snake and the Little Prince and the so‑called “solution” to life’s problems according to the Snake. We developed two versions of the project: one for the stage and one participatory version for public space. Both start from the same idea: the manipulation of minds found in certain practices and excesses of the self‑help and wellness world. In Mestre, we will present the stage version, reflecting on the condition of the seated spectator immersed in a consumerist attitude: “But fear not, everything will be fine. We have the solution to all your problems!”

But fear not, everything will be fine. We have the solution to all your problems!

The body is increasingly a mirror of ongoing transformation, from physical practices to AI. J.C. Ballard’s “condominium” feels more relevant than ever. The days when the Italian actress Anna Magnani said, “Let me keep all my wrinkles… it took me a lifetime to earn them,” seem far away. How do you address this change in your performances?
The body is an old political resister. The world changes and so do our practices, but the body has the ability to “digest” every transformation. Like many living organisms, it can adapt, and it is toward this intelligence of adaptation that we must move, adapt, bypass, stand tall without bending. We are naturally optimistic and cannot accept the future of the world if viewed through lenses of fear and violence. Every day we must work so this does not happen. In our work we aim to highlight the need for a strong critical spirit. Our latest two projects revolve around manipulation of the living and of the mind: we want to dismantle certain mechanisms and share them with those who follow us, on stage and in participatory formats in public space. If the world seems to head in the wrong direction, then we must imagine a better one every day.

Your performances often celebrate freedom, resistance, and the call to a psychological response. Who do you see as the enemy?
The enemy is clear: capitalist drift and the pettiness of those who exploit it, taking advantage of the vulnerability of individuals or entire groups. “Every morning another pigeon rises…” becomes a motto of profit logic. We refuse to live in a jungle. Our goal is the reclamation of politics through the body. Through our bodies passes the rejection of a certain capitalism; through them we affirm a gesture of resistance and independence.