I did get strongly touched emotionally whilst watching "Raoul" by James Thiérrée, though I must confess it was a mixture of sensitivity as to what was being conveyed and the extreme privilege of watching someone I consider to be one of the most complete performers I have ever seen.
It is extremely difficult to talk about "Raoul" ... Is it a circus, dance, music, theatre show, puppetry, mimic ?... It is none of that and yet it does incorporate it all, it is a rather strong magic performing solo act brilliantly performed by its author, James Thiérrée.
James Thiérée's own words are certainly up to his performance and what it really is about, this being the reason why I've copied them out.
"(...) in the piece , Raoul meets creatures ... and he could be one of those creatures - Raoul doesn't really know who he is or that he is a human being, because there is no one else. He is closed in his tower and he tries to forget about these questions, and of course he's going to have a visit - and little by little he's going to be forced to take a look outside and see what's going on and to get rid of his armour and of his fear and of his desire not to be disturbed. He is going to have to be disturbed. On the subject of home, identity - perhaps what the piece says is home is not where you are dwelling and identity is not the one you think you have. We start with someone who is home, who is staying home, living home, and he will have this home destroyed by himself in order to get to the next level which is whatever it is - I'm not specifying, and don't want to specify. But the whole show, it's not about home, it's not about houses, it's about the soul and it's about what goes on in the brain and the infinite ways of overcoming whatever obstructs."
Regarding the stage " what is perceived is important, but what is felt is more important than what is perceived - what is felt is most important (...) I do believe that whatever attention and love and passion has been put into constructing something, into everything on-stage, it comes out to the audience and they can tell if it's been taken care of by someone, and you can feel that attention of that someone on the props, and that beauty I think is very powerful, and it's not seen and it's not told and yet it's there."
Regarding music " music is really the one most important influence - I listen to music all the time and it really feeds the ideas and even the wholeness of the show. In Raoul, for example, you'll see, Shubert is very present and it was very important (...) there is intimacy in Schubert and this melancholy that was perfect for Raoul, for that lonely character (...) it is the voice of Raoul, this character doesn't speak, but the voice of his soul is the music."
Regarding words " (...) when you interact with words they are so powerful, so intricate, so complex that you can lose yourself in the words of ... of human anguishes and desires. It's such a vast terrain that I guess you must lose contact sometimes with the most abstract and more immediately accessible things of beauty and of flesh and yes, instinct (...) there needs to be space where an audience can actually project what they are about - not just what the show is about, but what they are about and how the show makes them react and their own intimacy to that - that's very important, and for that you need to leave a bit of space - and I like the fact that words come in the audience's mind - that the words will come as a reaction in the audience's mind."
"The simplicity of the idea of this everyman confronting the vast landscape of his fears and obstacles was a way to get away from just a demonstration of my skills."
An absolute must ... a name to remember ... an actor to follow wherever he'll be performing ...
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