Farm Fatale Review – Horrible threats bring out hay in climate crisis | Theater

Bslip into one of these raids at night and you can be excused for running miles. But stick around to listen to the grass-roots gang of crop protectionists, who no longer have crops to protect or birds to scare away from climate change, and you’ll see that they have only good intentions.

Farm Fatale eager to join five menaces with melted plastic faces and machine-swallowed children’s voices in the artificial studio of their pirate radio station. It is established recently, when the air is difficult to breathe and the songs of birds are recorded. The only people who get through it are industrial farmers who take advantage of the destruction of their fellows. When the crows ask the bees, with a microphone impressively mounted on a fork, it is often described as one of the last in Europe.

Combined with the idea of ​​being thrown away like a mixed compost, this interesting French production was first created in Germany and is performed in English. Director Philippe Quesne, who maintains a long-term relationship with his actors, takes a sociologist’s approach to his work, and enjoys watching what a group of odd people in closed spaces will do.

The first part of the show is sweet and surprisingly sweet, setting the rules of the game as we learn why these scarecrows had to give up their independent farms and how their radio is fueling hope and showmanship. But as it moves forward, on the white plastic rocks and grass designed by Nicole Marianna Wytyczak, it is interrupted by its own thoughts. The story is unstable, turning at one point to a sci-fi concert of eggs (a recurring theme in the director’s work), then a violent attack. There isn’t a set piece that isn’t as focused on world-building or as absurdly entertaining as the rest.

As it builds its vision of art as salvation and farms as human life, with a haunting karaoke cover of It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green, you start to feel like you’re watching a fun party. But with a surprising beauty and commitment – Gaëtan Vourc’h’s freedom fighter is very interesting in his strangeness – these droll pictures are the best company in resisting depression.