The Cat’s letter › Transquinquennal

Drawing on the principle of interactivity, an actor, who is alone on stage (but also manages the light and sound effects), regularly interrupts his narrative to ask the spectators about the direction they want the show to continue in. So, from one performance to the next, different scenarios can unfold (there are eight in total).

The plot involves two strange characters wandering the streets of Brussels. The first is a political refugee who has forgotten his real name and is looking for a magician. The second is a former big-shot defence lawyer from Belgium who gave up everything to go in search of the language of cats.

‘The traditional novel, short story and stage play have accustomed us to a linear narrative, one that starts at a beginning, follows an irreversible course, and arrives at an ending in the form of a conclusion. But, he asked me, is an alternative to the linear narrative really possible?’

Pierre Sartenaer and I were discussing this one summer evening on a terrace. My father is a computer expert, and I pointed out to Pierre that the computer age has generated a new type of narrative, the interactive narrative. In an interactive narrative, the spectator

can choose between several possibilities. It is a narrative that branches off, a narrative that bifurcates, a narrative built up out of the spectators’ reactions. Any software or computer programme, any algorithm is an interactive narrative. I gave him other examples of bifurcating narratives.

For the past decade or two, Oulipo, the Workshop of Potential Literature, has taken a quasi-scientific approach to the problem. Raymond Queneau even wrote a prototype: ‘Yours for the Telling.’

There are more and more interactive children’s books: Folio Junior publishes stories of which young readers are the heroes, involving either sci-fi, medieval or fantasy adventures. Even interactive erotica has recently been published!

The interactive videodisc is taking its first steps, mainly in the field of education, which can be considered an interactive narrative: the pupil is a spectator who, depending on his or her understanding, can make the teacher bifurcate.

Pierre Sartenaer jumped on the occasion. He told me about an old project of his: a show which spectators could steer as they please, a show they could watch several times while always discovering new adventures – an interactive show.

I promised him I’d think about it and we said goodbye. On my way back to Saint-Gilles, I realized that this form I thought was new was nothing more than the revival of a more archaic genre: storytellers of long ago adapted and adjusted their tales according to the

spectators’ reactions, sometimes they improvised, and often they made their stories branch off according to predetermined frameworks.

I remembered an anecdote about the Turkish writer Yaşar Kemal. When writing the adventures of Memed, My Hawk, Kemal was inspired by regional writers, illiterates who recite and revise ancient epics. Visiting his native village, he realized that these storytellers

were now relating the adventures of his own character, Memed, in an altered version.

According to Kemal, their versions are more interesting than his.

I then recalled another example from popular culture. In Iran, in the province of Khorassan, near Ispahan, storytellers recite the Shahnameh or Book of Kings, the great Persian epic written by the poet Ferdowsi. These storytellers take hold of a stick that they twirl in rhythm to the stanzas. The stick can also help illustrate the action, serving as a prop, whether a sword, a stream, a mountain, a battle or God. Peasants gather to listen to their epics, peasants who know the tales so well that when a storyteller makes a mistake they can correct him: the entire gathering will then recite the correct stanza in unison.

I went home, took a shower, and started writing The Cats’ Letter.

Credits

Author: Philippe Blasband
Direction : Stéphane Olivier
Dramaturgy : Bernard Breuse
Costumes : Sylvie Thévenard
Jugglery: Phil Busby
Climbing counsellor : Patrick Kienen
Musical counsellor : Yves Duvekend
Lighting : Isabelle Van Peteghem
Sound : Raymond Delepierre/Jean-Luc Ongena
Casting : Pierre Sartenaer
Coproduction Atelier Sainte Anne

Press

Signalons-le d'emblée : le spectacle imaginé par Philippe Blasband, Pierre Sartenaer, Stéphane Olivier et Bernard Breuse ne contentera pas les pisse-vinaigre intellos prétentieux et petits.... d'esprit. L’article complet
14/11/1992, Christelle Prouvost, Le Soir

Rares sont les occasions où le public n'est pas voyeur, assigné à résidence, consigné, vidangé par la pertinence du propos. Rien de tel dans La Lettre des Chats. Les auteurs nous emmènent dans une promenade littéraire, en plein terrain vague. «Un terrain vague, dit le metteur en scène Stéphane Olivier, construit sur une termitière, sur des galeries plus profondes que d'autres.» L’article complet
14/11/1992, Sophie Creuz, L’Echo de la Bourse

Par un curieux détour par la fin du XXe siècle et son outil le plus caractéristique, l'ordinateur, les deux hommes renouent en fait avec une ancienne tradition encore bien vivante dans certains coins du monde. Les conteurs… L’article complet
14/11/1992, Anne-Catherine Doumont, La Libre Belgique

Photos

Dates

02/04/1994: Centre Culturel de Seraing, Seraing (BE)
24/02/1994: Maison de la Culture de La Louvière, La Louvière (BE)
22/02/1994: Centre Culturel du Brabant Wallon, Court-St-Etienne (BE)
21 → 25/02/1994: Centre Culturel de Genval, Genval (BE)
22/01/1994: Foyer Socio-Culturel de Braine-l'Alleud, Braine-l'Alleud (BE)
20/01/1994: Centre Culturel de Huy, Huy (BE)
20 → 23/03/1993: Maison de la Culture de Tournai, Tournai (BE)
12 → 28/11/1992: Atelier Saint-Anne, Bruxelles (BE)