Play Direction, Text, Production AND CONCEPTION

Peep Show

2015

The peep show, in its various forms since its appearance in New York at the turn of the 20th century, has always involved voyeurism from the paying consumer. The rise of the internet and web porn undoubtedly explains the decline of booth peep shows. Peep shows have suffered the same fate as contemporary theater, undergoing radical dematerialization in the digital age.

Peep Show is a theatrical reflection on the dematerialization of erotic consumption, from the disappearance of booths to the millions of web shows available on the internet.

The video screen is invisible (a draped tulle, stretched to the point of imperceptibility) separating the performer, alone on stage, from the audience condemned to become voyeurs.

This setting (reminiscent of a physical peep show booth) constitutes the fourth wall and allows the live images to be superimposed on the performance of the actress in the flesh.

The tulle thus served as a screen, simultaneously representing a peep show booth separating the performance from its “customer,” a computer screen separating the consumer from the virtual world, a screen displaying a virtual blog for the audience, etc.

“The script, written by Nicolas Berzi, who is directing his seventh production here, is powerful.

It is carried effectively by [Livia Sassoli], who, alone on stage, embodies with formidable credibility this undulating woman who, in less than an hour, subtly draws our gaze away from her physical appearance and directs it toward the realm of our perversions, our flaws, our anxieties, our flaws, our weaknesses, and other corners of human psychology that a peep show can sometimes illuminate with its red neon lights calling for debauchery.”

Fabien Deglise