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JOHN: Some words don't matter.

BILL: There's some others that do, but I don't know them.

Bill and John are both unemployed and go from race-course to race-course, hoping to one day snatch the winning ticket. One night, a man offers John to become the official trainer for one of his greyhounds. From the very start, the plan obviously stinks, but the idea of success and an escape from a mediocre life is so powerful that they will carry on in spite of everything.

Compagnie tisserin plays Silent Partner, a tragic comedy that raises crucial issues on our place in a society that mainly relies on principles of the individual, profit and economic growth.

In parallel with this artistic creation, people in precarious situations are invited to spend one night at the theatre with a guest of their choice and take part to one the four café-dialogues that will take place the day following each show: constructive afternoons of exchanges with the team and other members of the audience around a bowl of soup, cake and coffee.

Why this artistic creation?

Silent Partner is a play written in 1987 by Australian author Daniel Keene and translated into French by Séverine Magois*. The tale is built around various, yet ever-topical, phenomena of social exclusions. For us, this story broaches such issues as success and failure, dreams and fantasies, humanity evolving in an increasingly mad world. Moreover, the stage direction is a veritable artistic challenge: there are only two actors on stage, engaging in a continuous dialogue structured in 22 scenes that all take place in different spaces and that are spread out over several weeks.

* Silence Complice, © éditions théâtrales, 1999, 2011

Why an invitation to dialogue?

Theatre is truly the ideal place to practise the art of observation and questioning. But we want to go further. We want to create a space for encounters and exchanges, in such a way that enriching conversations may emerge, resulting in new tales and stories...

The participants meet people from various horizons but share one common point: they've all seen a performance of Silence Complice. Theatre allows us reflecting personal histories and sends us back to the perception we have of ourselves, the others and the world in which we evolve.

The glance that we cast on each other has a great impact on our quality of life. We feel that it is crucial to create open spaces allowing us to question our opinions and judgements.

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How will you organise these "café-dialogues"?

The café-dialogues will be organised in a way that encourages listening and sharing and the confrontation between several viewpoints using amongst others the principle of the World Café: in a convivial atmosphere, participants analyse a question by discussing in small groups around tables for several consecutive sessions lasting between 20 and 30 minutes. Participants switch tables after each session to “fecundate” their discussions with the ideas raised at other tables. The event ends with a plenary session summarizing the main ideas and conclusions.

We will share the key points from conversations in the theatre hall and online, using visual and textural material including posters, accounts, drawings, collages, little films, poems written by a poet who will follow our work closely.

Where and when?

Performances: Wed 21, Thu 22, Fri 23 and Sat 24 October 2015, 20:00

Café-dialogues: Thu 22, Fri 23, Sat 24 and Sun October 201 2015, 12:00 – 15:00 at Saint Gilles' Maison du Peuple, Parvis de Saint-Gilles, Brussels, Belgium

Reserve your tickets :

- if you choose to contribute to our project and the perk you choose includes tickets, we will e-mail you to find out what time you want to come.

- otherwise : 02 534 56 05 ou culture.1060@stgilles.irisnet.be - tickets 9 / 15 €

You can help us in many different ways!

Support us with your presence:

Come and see the show, take part to the dialogue, bake a cake, prepare a great soup.

Or offer us another contribution, like that of poetess Dorothy Oger who will attend a few Café Dialogues and will write poems herself, which should trigger the creativity of participants.

Support us and book your seats, or buy a seat for a friend.

Support us and offer a seat to people wanting to attend and invite a guest, but who don't have enough money to do so at the moment.

A step back in time: where did the idea of organising dialogues come from?

The first rehearsals of Silence Complice took place in the CPAS Salle Bernier in Saint Gilles in late 2014. This chance gave us an idea. Stage director Stien Michiels also works as a process facilitator: she accompanies dialogues in organisations and communities (www.theriverkeeper.be). From then on, in exchange for the use of the rehearsal hall and theatre, why could we not organise, in collaboration with the CPAS and Commune de Saint Gilles (particularly the social cohesion and cultural departments), a project with CPAS users allowing to launch a discussion in a constructive manner on the very sensitive subject broached by the play, in parallel with the artistic project? And thus contribute to the social fabric and reinforcement of collectivities. We decided to push back the creation to early 2015 and we started exploring many paths before finding the final format of the project in July. This process inspired us to create a non-profit organisation: cie tisserin. Silent Partner is our first project.

Our team:

Direction: Stien Michiels

Actors: Stéphane Brodzki / François Pinte

Video: Almudena Crespo

Set design: Saoud Mama

Musique & Sound: Frédéric Vercheval

Costumes: Delphine Coërs

Technical Support Vidéo & Sound: Benjamin Durfort

Assistant Set design: Esteban Lee Monin

Communication & Production: Stien Michiels

Assistant Communication & Public Encounters: Valentin Dayan

A project in collaboration with

The Commune de Saint-Gilles (Cultural Department and Social Cohesion Department), the CPAS de Saint Gilles, the European Week of Local Democracy (SEDL), The Riverkeeper - Dialogue Facilitation, Europe Refresh – A project initiated by Les Halles (Brussels), Le Carreau du Temple (Paris) and KissKissBankBank, taal-ad-visie

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Silence Complice

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