On the occasion of «Mons 2015 European Capital of Culture» Michèle Noiret was asked to work on an interview with the Belgian writer Conrad Detrez by Jacques Chancel on the occasion of the Renaudot prize he had just received for his novel “L’herbe à brûler”.
Michèle Noiret has very freely drawn inspiration from certain passages of this incredible piece of autofiction, imbued with the strong ambiances and sensations she experienced while reading it. In this way, among other things there is a Brazilian atmosphere, inspired by the chapters in which the protagonist is swept along by the madness, sensuality and agonies of the Rio Carnival. She also finds resonances in extracts from the writings of Conrad Detrez: the theme of violence, due particularly to ignorance; the idea that a human being can be reduced to a label, a constant temptation in today’s media and society, and, especially, the idea that reality contains a part of unreality, that there is a secret of things, a secret of the world that we must extract — a recurring theme in the choreographic creations. Michèle Noiret will take up this last thought to lead us, throughout the piece, into “this secret of things” Detrez talks about, through the tortured maze of his subconscious, by increasingly troubling shortcuts.