Could you first introduce yourself to the reader?
Pintozor is a collective created by Maxine Reys and Audrey Bersier. We like to conceive new ways of apprehending the present and the future. We navigate between theatre, performance, sound walks, installations; we sketch utopias and meet the dreams of the young generations through immersive workshops on the imaginary and science fiction. For this performance, we work with Marion Thomas, friend and satellite of the company who wrote the text. With her we share a taste for hybrid forms of theater, a love of science fiction, a genre that makes us change our perspective on the present and allows us to dream utopias.
How would you describe your show?
Guide to Surviving Masculinist Territory is a performance in the form of a sound walk in urban space. The audience follows a woman in the street, while listening to the story of an "Incel", a member of this community of "involuntary celibates" who meet on the internet around their common hatred of women. The audience listens to the story of a young woman who has spent a lot of time on incel forums, and tries to understand their ways of thinking.
Why do you want to perform at Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
Curiosity is an issue that brings us together. For us, the Fringe is a way to meet new audiences and new ways of working.
What differentiates it from other festivals?
We've never performed at a festival this diverse and big! We already know it's going to be an overwhelming experience for us.
What first motivated you to enter the industry? Who were your inspirations?
Marion: The first time I thought I wanted to be a director was when I saw Philippe Quesne's La mélancolie des dragons. I had never seen anything so strange, absurd, fragile and beautiful at the same time. The sensation I retain when I leave this play is the communicative joy and the desire to discuss with everyone. That day, I told myself that if I could provoke this emotion in people, it would be wonderful.
Audrey: I fell in love with sound art when I watched David Lynch's Mulholland Drive while I had an ear infection. I knew the film by heart and watching it half deaf, I was struck by the flatness of the experience. Sound then became my favourite medium and, combined with theatre, it forms an absolute immersion tool.
How has your background, upbringing and education had an impact on your artistic career?
Marion: I was born and raised in a working class area of the Paris suburbs, in a modest family. I am a class defector, at least culturally. But when I write, I think of my brother and my mother, I
try to write for them. So yes, my background influences my practice today, I want to create accessible, inclusive and popular works.
What is your earliest childhood art memory?
Marion: The first time I saw a play I must have been 19 or 20 years old. My first artistic emotion was visual. I must have been 7 or 8 years old and I came across a perfume ad in a magazine, a woman bathing in a pool of golden liquid. She was wearing necklaces and a kind of white toga. I cut out that ad and it hung on my bedroom wall for the next 10 years.
Audrey: I don't remember how old I was, but as I walked through the train station in my little mountain town, I noticed a huge mural painted on the ceiling. I remember being fascinated by the scenery with the people, the sounds and the strange light.
If you didn’t have your current job, what would you probably be doing?
Maxine: if I chose to get away from the working world, I would like to be surrounded by my friends and look at the clouds while drawing monsters
Marion: This is a question I often ask myself, given the precariousness of this profession. I think I would like to be an undertaker.
Audrey: I would definitely be an archeologist.
Did Covid-19 change the way you create work? Do you approach shows with a different mentality now?
It made me want to produce a little less. The Covid crisis has been hard for everyone, and for some people more than others. We were privileged in a certain sense, because we had a garden and friends and above all not too much economic insecurity. On the other hand, we were forced to slow down our professional rhythm, and in the end it was a small revelation. Since then, we have been thinking and discussing a lot among ourselves to find ways to cultivate this little revelation.
Describe the last year in 5 words or less?
Regressions in individual freedoms
Do you subscribe to the idea that art should be exempt from ‘cancel culture’?
I am uncomfortable to use the term of cancel culture in particular because it is used by conservatives of right and extreme right to discredit the struggles. However I think that art has to answer for its acts and its positionings in the same way as society. The artistic object should not be the occasion to hide from this responsibility.
If you could work with anybody, from any point in history, who would you pick and why?
Marion: I would like to work with Spartacus. I have read all the books on him that I could find, he is a figure that fascinates me since a long time. I would like to interview him for hours to understand the man behind the myth.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to take a show up to the fringe?
I hope you like beer.
When and where can people see your show?
Summerhall, from the 3rd to the 28th of August
And where can people find, follow and like you online?
Instagram : ‘@pintozor.prod Twitter : @PintozorP www.pintozor.orghttps://fragcie.com/?
fbclid=IwAR1_xsZ7e4CoEsAwwV3i6Q_8OtmJa34Y-0SOFOfSGHO9HBrH_GVewsWBzqYFacebook : Pintozor
Facebook : FRAG
Guide to Surviving Masculinist Territory is performing at Summerhall, from the 3rd to the 28th of August. For tickets and more information, visit edfringe.com
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