Cie Batchata

Batchata company: purpose and style
We are clowns

The tradition of circus clowns is not foreign to us. We have experimented with all kinds of spaces (circus ring, theater and cabaret stage, public space, private space...) where our characters have exaggerated their expressions, reduced their mental age and vice versa, played "here and now" as well as in imaginary spaces.

We have also intervened in places where our characters have tried to offer their thunderous humanity to accompany suffering (for example in hospital services).

Today we want to be in the world and entertain through the gaze our clowns cast on it.

The clownish character invites its author to laugh at his own weaknesses, to dare to be perfectly ridiculous, to take the freedom to be himself.

Self-mockery is the basis of clownish expression. The artist is likely to give a translation of humanity that is both naive and mocking, hilarious and poetic.

The great peculiarity of the clown is to invent a language that reveals the human soul.

By the grace of this extraordinary character, we have fun dissecting the tragic human condition by asking ourselves how man hinders himself in his quest for happiness.

We would like our characters and their ability to entertain to help "connect" people with each other, and participate (humbly) in opening (joyfully) their questioning and, why not, a debate...

Our art calls for a complicity with the audience

In its work, the company cultivates the listening of the spectators.

The playful relationship between the character and the audience, direct and lively, is one of the basic conditions of clownish work.

On the other hand, the company wishes to address the most diverse audiences in age, culture, social background.

The shows of the Batchata company are for "all audiences".

We believe that clowns are not exclusively for children.

By this choice, the figure of the clown can live in all its complexity: its tragic aspect is perceived by adults while children probably laugh at its clumsiness.

Our practice is composed of multiple disciplines:

gestural theater, mime, masked play, dance, magic, object theater, puppetry, music and singing. (The clown artist, with all these tools in his pocket, may be able to help his character to meet the challenge of appearing inept, but having brilliant flashes.)

We have the will to create a simple scenographic language which allows us to play in multiple conditions.