TANT QU'IL Y AURA DES BREBIS

On stage, there is an actress and an actor. They address the audience. Sometimes they sing, sometimes they dance – in short, they act. And they give voice to a community of craftspeople whose existence we rarely even suspect: the sheep shearers.

They bring to life this essential craft, as old as wool itself.

They do so with the same simplicity that shearers display when they arrive at a farm to set up their shearing operation.

They evoke pastoral life without nostalgia, a fixation on the past or artificial folklore, to convey the relationship with the world that it implies and upholds, and to offer a glimpse of just how rich and relevant it seems to us today.

They speak of a trade which, through its uniqueness, challenges our established ways of working.

They depict a technique which, through precision and constant adjustment, becomes an art, a dance.

They bring all of this to life.
Just as the shearers move from farm to farm, the actors have visited the shearers to gather testimonies – material for their play.
Their names are Arthur and Maybie; they introduce the characters they embody in the performance.

COMPAGNIE LA DERNIÈRE BALEINE