In Instable, Nicolas Fraiseau, acrobatic Everyman, attempts to suspend a pole on an invisible wire. Aided by members of the troupe Les Hommes Penchés, he climbs, loses his balance, falls, and resumes climbing, his struggle hovering between comedy and tragedy.
The spectators, who recognize in Fraiseau’s precarious quest a mirror of our quotidian experience and that embracing the unexpected is essential to the human condition, respond with empathy. And thus the quester’s engagement of the audience creates life all around him.
Instable grew out of Fraiseau’s 2016 student project at the Centre National des Arts du Cirque (CNAC), where his performance, embodying elements of fragility, instability, and—finally—failure, impressed jury member Christophe Huysman, who invited the young acrobat to join Les Hommes Penchés and develop the work for the public. In 2018, he premiered Instable at the Académie Fratellini in La Plaine Saint-Denis and reprised it at the Seoul Street Arts Festival in South Korea the following year, before public performances were suspended due to the pandemic. This season, he is bringing Instable to American audiences for the first time at PS21.
CHRISTOPHE HUYSMAN AND COMPAGNIE LES HOMMES PENCHÉS
Christophe Huysman is a writer, actor, and director. He founded Les Hommes Penchés in 1995, after completing his studies at the Conservatoire de Roubaix and at the Conservatoire National de Paris (CNSAD). Since 2001, the company has staked out the territory between the scenographic and the street with performances ranging from theater pieces to video installations and music hall shows. In his dual pursuit of giving shape to human dreams, Huysman has directed theater and nurtured circus arts at the Festival d’Avignon, Théâtre de la Bastille, La Villette, Festival Multipistes, and other venues.
NICOLAS FRAISEAU
Nicolas Fraiseau, born in 1995, discovered his passion for the Chinese pole and appetite for risk-taking at the Ecole nationale de cirque in Châtellerault. He completed his training at the Ecole nationale des arts du cirque in Rosny-sous-Bois (ENACR) and the Centre national des arts du cirque in Châlons-en-Champagne (CNAC), and joined the Compagnie Kiaï in 2015, where he performed in Cri, Kafka dans les villes, Bachar Mar Khalife’s Piano sur le fil, and La Main de la Mer. His gift for sharing moments of exhilaration and freedom through improvisation expressed in precise gestures have made Fraiseau a rising star in the circus world.
AUGUST 12–13, 1 PM
In addition to the performance, Fraiseau and members of Les Hommes Penchés will lead circus workshops for aspiring young circus artists at PS21, including the participants in the Wooster Group Summer Institute.
