an immersive show plunges the audience into the heart of the abyss

It is a journey into the abyss, this wild space threatened by man who intends to exploit its mineral resources, that offers us David Wahl and Thomas Cloarec with their piece Donvor. Headphones on, the audience plunges into this show in the dark for the first 20 minutes. We listen to the story of a trip off the Azores in the Atlantic.

Two scientists from Ifremer, the French research institute for the exploitation of the sea, Jozée Sarrazin and Pierre-Marie Sarradin, invited David Wahl and Thomas Cloarec aboard the Why notan oceanographic vessel equipped with a submarine capable of going to the bottom of the sea, to study the immense mineral chimneys, fascinating thermal springs whose eco-systems are still poorly understood. “These are also environments that are already threatened because they are coveted, explains director Thomas Cloarec. There are a number of mineral resources there, notably necessary for the energy transition for the manufacture of our mobile phones, our tablets, etc. A race against time then begins for the scientists working on these ecosystems.

“We must acquire as much data as possible to try to understand what these ecosystems are, what is their level of resilience and what would happen if we were to exploit the deep sea.”

Thomas Cloarec, director

at franceinfo

That the scientific universe is transposed to the theater is not uncommon. But here, it was the scientists who initiated the process, convinced that a show at the Reine Blanche theater in Paris and then on tour, will affect the public more than a conference, an unprecedented process. The radiophonic form, the exit of the black to discover on stage the actors who manufacture the sound effects live, everything contributes to arouse the imagination of the spectator in immersion. “In a few minutes, we find ourselves in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, in the dark, on board a boat and we see ourselves diving”describe Thomas Cloarec.

By appealing to the spectator’s imagination, everyone visualizes their own landmarks, as on the “mould of the depths” which is about in the show: “For some viewers, a giant mussel is one meter, for others it is 20cm, so it’s up to everyone to grab that.” “It leaves quite strong traces in the body and it prints”, concludes Thomas Cloarec.