HEN returns to FIMFA in a brand-new version! A cabaret featuring a queer, punk puppet that transcends gender boundaries and breaks free from all constraints!
HEN is a unique puppet that cannot be confined to a single category. Its face and body are multifaceted: woman and man, feminine and masculine. A character full of life, exuberant, a furious and virile diva in high heels, who expresses herself by singing freely of love, hope, bodies, pleasure and sexuality.
Manipulated by two actors, this creation is the result of research carried out in laboratories on issues of identity and gender, combined with an exploration of the origins of subversive puppet theatre.
HEN returns in a more intimate setting, in a travelling cabaret that explores love through new songs written for this puppet, alongside a few covers. But can we really trust a puppet made of foam and wood to sing about love? Does she even understand this fragile yet universal emotion? An unmissable, out-of-the-box experience, complete with sequins, plenty of glitter and heart-shaped balloons. Let’s overflow with “Love”!
FIMFA has been following Johanny Bert’s career. Following the success of HEN and La (Nouvelle) Ronde, presented at the São Luiz Theatre in 2024, with his hyper-realistic puppets, it is a great pleasure to welcome this new and magnetic version of HEN.
“The charm of the songs (…), a bold yet tender puppet, the originality of the staging: the whole thing exerts an immediate allure, thanks to this infinitely moving, raw and unadorned cabaret of curiosities, which we long both to hear and to embrace.” – Mariane de Douhet, i/o Gazette
“HEN is a masterpiece, a high-heeled kick in the teeth for the old world.” – Amélie Niddam, Toute La Culture
“A modern-day diva, trashy and extravagant, HEN (…) sets the stage alight and invites us to join in a wild, trans and seductive dance. Carried by the soft, velvety voice of its creator, Johanny Bert, this puppet (…) transcends genres and breaks the rules. Watch out, this is a favourite!”
– Olivier Fregaville-Gratian d’Amore, L’Oeil d’Olivier
“History repeats itself: it is cyclical; sometimes we have to fight all over again for rights we thought we had secured, and yet we must also move forward, demand new ones, invent and propose. That is exactly what Johanny Bert and her technical and artistic team did with great artistry.”
-Hervé Ponse, Les Inrockuptibles
BIO
Johanny Bert is an actor, puppeteer and director. Throughout his artistic career, he has developed a unique theatrical language: the interplay between the actor, the object and the art of puppetry. Each creation is a new exploration, drawing on contemporary texts (commissions, unpublished works or repertoire pieces) or a visual universe constructed collaboratively on stage. He enjoys working with performers from different disciplines (actors, dancers, singers, musicians, etc.). Certain dramaturgical approaches lead him towards a dialogue between the human and the inanimate, as in the art of puppetry, but he does not wish to be confined to a single category: theatre for young people, visual theatre, puppet theatre… and he creates intuitively, with a form of insolent freedom, guided by a theme or objective.
He founded the Théâtre de Romette company in 2000, an experimental creative space for actors and puppets. Between 2012 and 2015, he directed the Centre Dramatique National de Montluçon – Le Fracas, and in 2016 he returned to creative work. He was an associate artist at Clermont-Ferrand from 2016 to 2018, and at Bateau Feu – Scène Nationale de Dunkerque from 2018 to 2021. His most recent productions include La (Nouvelle) Ronde, which premiered at the Théâtre de la Ville (2023) and was presented at FIMFA Lx24 and HEN (2019), and was presented at FIMFA Lx22.
