Dramaturgy gets Drummed Up: Sébastien Rambaud and Yann Coste @ Edfringe 2015

The Fringe

GKV: What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
Questions answered by Sébastien RAMBAUD and Yann COSTE.We try to ban all frontiers from our imagination. We pick ideas from everywhere, it can be a disco rhythm, a bird singing, or a jig saw singing.

Why bring your work to Edinburgh? At the start of the show a few years ago, we had no idea it would become international. We’ve recently performed in Canada, China, an even at La Réunion, a remote French island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and we want to take the show everywhere around the world, basically. And the best place to meet the world is Edinburgh Festival Fringe!

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
The audience will laugh, dance, shout, clap their hands, air drum, sing a Miles Davis tune, and feel the beats of percussions through their whole body. Audience participation is welcome!


The Dramaturgy Questions
How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work? Our show is a mix of a music gig and a theatre performance. We are two drummers-clowns, or clowns-drummers, or even better, we are ‘drumourists’.

What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
To name only a handful of influences in theatre and music: Michel Courtemanche (1), AC/DC, Stomp, Benoît Poelvoorde (2), Manu Katché (3), Mozart (4).

(1) Michel Courtemanche is Canadian actor and comedian

(2) Benoît Poelvoorde is Belgian actor and comedian

(3) Manu Katché is a French drummer who’s recorded and toured with pop artists such as Sting, Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds, Dire Straits

(4) Mozart is an Austrian musician (we think)

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
Oops. Sorry, we don’t have any method! Anything can potentially fuel creation. The only rule is: every idea is tested, challenged, tested again and in the end only la crème de la crème is kept.

Of course we are surrounded by a few friends and companions who we think help to make the show improve. I’m especially thinking of our stage director Gil Galliot.

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
The show comes to life as soon as we have at least one person in the audience. When the second arrives, it starts to get crazy, when we hit the hundreds it goes bonkers!

Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?
Our show is 100% no-spoken-word, and we’ve already used a lot of words in answering this questionnaire. You will understand everything when you come and see Fills Monkey perform live!