Margo

Production Information

Authors: Raquel Rache de Andrade, Valérie Bordedebat, Guy Carrara, Rémi Esterle, Damien Manivel, Benoit Taguet
Director: Guy Carrara

Light design: Michael Hache
Music: Olivier Teneur
Costumes: Valérie Delattre

Artists: Valérie Bordedebat, Rémi Esterle, Damien Manivel, Raquel Rache de Andrade, Benoît Taguet
For large venues: Raquel Rache De Andrade ou Luciana Vivas Costa, Valérie Bordedebat, Rémi Esterle, Damien Manivel, Benoît Taguet, Lionel Pioline, Pascal Sogny, Christophe Chapin, Aurélie Brua, Fred Leta

Media Coverage

“Margo… The show marks a radical metamorphosis from hard-hitting art to poetic evocation, more sensual than crypto porn. The shift is dramatic, and the images are disturbing. Archaos tells the story of longing for elsewhere, of failed take-offs... The stage then rises vertically, a new test, another hill to climb. Masts rise like so many obstacles. The acrobatic actors climb them, dance, and fall again... The cage closes in on the condemned, who are always on the verge of falling... A theatrical space and laboratory, Margo reveals the imbalances of desire, its procrastinations… It’s enough to leave the audience dazed after so many unexpected upheavals.”
– Pierre Notte, EPOK, December-January 2004

“Archaos was extremely well publicized, so Guy Carrara brought together artists — more than a thousand since 1986 — who, in addition to traditional circus techniques, were masters of theater, dance, martial arts... which led to the company being asked by numerous fashion designers to liven up their shows.... With Margo, he goes back to basics... A tilting stage, a tilting set, a dark atmosphere that enables optical illusions, aerial acrobats suspended by their hair… A story of intimacy.”
– Bérangère Adda, Aujourd’hui en France, 24 December 2003

“Margo... The space is filled with visions of wandering through the city, the anonymous glances of people on a search for themselves, waiting for themselves, waiting for the other, on their way to a dreamed-of elsewhere... Five characters... individuals thrown into the chaos of reality... Guy Carrara’s minimalist scenography and staging play on asymmetry, contrasts, verticality, and horizontality. From the circus arts, he draws upon the symbolic power of body language, of falling, of ceaseless effort, of the insatiable desire to climb. Margo touches upon what is the most intimate, the most human.”
– Gwénola David, La Terrasse, December 2003

“Archaos... Sixteen years into the company’s story, it presents Margo at the Trianon... Within this art form most often doomed to silence, the team has succeeded in creating a performance in which a story is told... The stage, in movement, rises almost vertically. The rhythmic quality is well served by Olivier Teneur’s musical compositions... The rhythm surprises, providing the completion of a movement in which each performer demonstrates the best of his or her art...”
– Muriel Steinmetz, L’Humanité, 22 December 2003

“Margo... The metamorphosis of Archaos... Plunges the spectator into a new world, more intimate, less thunderous... based on a spectacular scenic device... The stage rises, rises slowly until it becomes completely vertical... On stage, Guy Carrara combines Archaos loyalists such as acrobat Raquel Rache de Andrade, who co-authored the show with him, and gymnast Valérie Bordedebat, with newcomers from diverse backgrounds. For example, former world champions in artistic karate Rémi Esterle and Damien Manivel make up an energetic male trio with aerial acrobatics expert Benoît Taguet...”
– Françoise Dargent, Le Figaro, 16 December 2003

“Archaos... Bodies speak for themselves. A text would be a pleonasm.’... Between theater, dance, circus, and music, Guy Carrara has invented a form of wordless spectacle where prowess and acting go hand in hand, linked together in a scenario that tells a tale... Seventeen years after stupefying and revolutionizing the circus, Carrara returns with an entirely different, totally intimate show, where acrobatic virtuosity is reinforced by dramatic interplay. The characters are the stuff of everyday heroes, and more than ever, art is born from chaos...”
– Nicole Duault, Le Journal du Dimanche, 10 December 2003

“Archaos: Margo... Director and stage designer Guy Carrara has always had a taste for the margins. With Margo, he looks for understanding and encounters: an ideal dreamed-of elsewhere. A touch of video, snatches of dialogue, a few anonymous faces, and a musical score (by Olivier Teneur) in total harmony with the dramaturgy: everything comes together to depict this wandering that is at the heart of our dehumanized megacities. The stylized yet sparse stage design, far from weakening the choreography, intensifies it with its emotional power. Violence lurks, untouched, patient as an old buzzard. You’ve been warned: Archaos is a circus with character...”
– Myriem Hajoui, A Nous Paris, 22 December 2003

“The arts of chaos... An acute sense of theatrical imagery that is between emotional shock and poetic delight... With Margo, the collective invests a mobile stage, adorned in black, a symbol of a world ready to topple over. Always on the edge, between darkness and glaring lights, generous gestures and vile behavior, the characters venture to the frontiers of madness... In its quest for an El Dorado, Archaos cultivates an ephemeral garden where the rare plants of the constantly evolving circus art grow.”
– Hervé Godard, L’Express, 5 December 2022

“Margo: beyond the frontier, there are no more frontiers... Archaos offers new paths where you shouldn’t be afraid to venture. A fascinating world of darkness. A compendium of reality whose disturbing nature is accepted with true jubilation... A compendium of life and the ease with which the puppet-bodies waltz between frustration, sadness, and derisory false joy... Five artists who deliver a raw and unsettling vision of the world. And it’s definitely the one we share with them.”
Olga Bibiloni, La Provence, 16 December 2002

“Archaos has created Margo, a combination of circus, dance, and theater... The new show from the Archaos company blends genres harmoniously... The secret is in the music that adheres to the show and, above all, the body language of these five artists, gymnasts, acrobats, and dancers that have all been trained in circus disciplines. Against a minimalist backdrop, they flit about, playing brutal or sensual games, approaching, and moving away from each other, suspended from masts, clinging to fabrics, flying on trestles, leaping and sliding across a floor that sometimes becomes vertical... After an hour’s performance, we are not only blown away by the artists’ performances but also completely in tune with their characters.”
– M.P.L, Le 18e du Mois, January 2004

“Archaos explores new horizons with Margo, a new and intimate production ... Its strength and originality lie in the combined use and blending of all these disciplines and the evocation of social issues... Centered on five individuals with very distinct characters, the show explores a new way of working for the director ... It’s the performers who provide all the depth to this sumptuous work.”
– P.A, Les Clés de l’Actualité, January-February 2004

“Margo...A circus show performed in a theater, and announced as such, can only be confusing... Here, nothing is presented as absolute, deliberately isolated, or abstract — everything communicates and intertwines: acrobatics with mime, brief words with long silent chases, video projections with modular scenery... Like Royal de Luxe, a company that emerged from the street arts with all the virtuosity required to captivate fickle audiences, Archaos perpetuates the myth of a theater of the universe, nomadic, cultured, and, above all, steeped in learning...”
– Daniel Branco, Sofa, February 2004