CHRISTMAS IN DECEMBER
Every year, the Christmas period is a pretext for numerous festive and cultural activities, including the Advent Calendar. From December 1 to 23, each evening a door opens onto the world of an artist on a chosen theme. Opening at 7:00 p.m. with fondue and mulled wine!
Once again this year, under the Bains des Pâquis yurt, nestled among the 4 plane trees, shows, concerts and other artistic encounters are also planned for almost every evening in December, from December 2 to 29, starting at 7:30pm. Performances will also take place at 4pm on certain Saturdays and Sundays. Here’s the full program for the Enchanted Yurt 2024!
Carte blanche given to Abimbola: songs, stories, tales, sharing lives as a link between Nigeria and Geneva.
But who are these lizards? High-pitched vocals, feather-tipped guitars, they take their tunes to any venue willing to let them have a
silent moment. It’s all spinning around in their music noggin. They whistle along with Gainsbourg, Tom Waits, Lou Reed and many other genius birds who have
left their feathers behind. From French chanson to folk, they flap their migratory wings. From their nests, they also write songs all their own. They tell stories, laughter, snatches of time, freak-outs and yet.
Tortell Poltrona is Catalan and lives near Barcelona. At 70, Tortell Poltrona is one of the last great traditional clowns still working. 30 years ago, Jaume Mateu founded Clown sans frontièrein 1993. Show and public meeting about clowning and clown sans frontière.
Carte blanche to PEG, a Danish clown living in Barcelona, who will take her block of ice from the North Pole to the Baths in search of unexpected encounters.
Poetic and musical encounter between Jacques Bonnaffé (actor, poet and director) and Yuka Okazaki (musician). With her bass clarinet, Yuka Okazaki conjures up dreamlike images. Her music is mobile, risky, on the edge of insecurity.
Reading and poetic encounter with Thomas Vinau, in complicity with Jacques Bonnaffé. Thomas Vinau is a French poet, short story writer and novelist who lives in the Luberon region. This meeting will be followed by Mandorle. A solo concert by Julien Lesuisse, featuring chaâbi mandola, alto saxophone and
sequencers. A journey in which the Sicilian dialect and the French language together conjure up melodious ghosts and tell mysterious, groove-tinged stories.
7:30 p.m.: Jacques Bonnaffé and Denis Lavant
Carte blanche. A freewheeling poetic joust between Jacques and Denis.
Cinema, theater, readings, short films, sound works – Denis Lavant is a polymorphous performer of great generosity who has clearly dedicated his destiny to the art of acting. A lover of poetry, Denis has also long been drawn to the circus and street arts, as well as to fairground theater.
A clown and a poet, Jacques Bonnaffé is sometimes a juggler of words, sometimes an inventor of poetic banquets, and sometimes a stage director or a patoisant bretteur. 9:30pm: Piccolo Mobile Disco
From minimal electro to old blues, from cumbia to hip-hop, Piccolo Mobile Disco’s eclectic atmosphere sets the mood between concerts. A DJ for streets and fields, Vincent Petit mixes with… cassettes!
Second reading and poetic encounter with Thomas Vinau, this time in complicity on stage with Denis Lavant. The meeting is followed by a concert featuring music from OS soloist Sébastien Olivier – and from the vocal duo with Liv Van Thuyne. Sébastien Olivier is a luthier, musician and actor from Geneva, whose generosity loves to escape the confines of the stage. A craftsman of sounds and words between brutality and delicacy.
7:30 pm: Yuka Okazaki and Denis Lavant
Carte blanche. A poetic and musical encounter.
He’s nobody, or a bit of everybody… maybe you… He’s just incarnate, with a rather ordinary look and an almost red nose… In passing, he stops… “I’m fed up, I can’t take this memory anymore, I’ve got to sort it out!” … Swaying… suspension… He wonders why, how, what… Time suspended… questions… emotions…
MémoRien is a show about our relationship with memory, the memory of words, the memory of a life, the memory that imposes itself or that flees… … volatile and unpredictable… When it’s gone, what replaces it at the heart of our being? What remains “when I forget” and for whom… ? He reassures himself as best he can, talking to his suitcase or looking after his belongings… Between thunder and rain, poetry and comedy, obliteration and a thirst for life, this endearing creature finds himself turning the pages of time, hoping to find “a meaning to existence”…
Written and directed by Cristof Héritier & Sylvie Daillot Performed by Cristof Héritier
Solo clown and no clown – show for adults
“It’s all very well to think you’re going to die, but I wonder, when are you really going to live? And it’s all very well to always think that we’re going to die, but I wonder, when do we really live?” Come and take a look at Fernand’s place! The door’s never closed, and you can be sure of one thing: he’s always there. You won’t be disappointed! Inspired by clowns and buffoons, this colorful character talks about loneliness. Waiting for his time to come, he waxes nostalgic about his life, his youthful memories and sings about a time that seems so long ago. Between dream and reality, Fernand takes us back in time on an emotionally rich journey. Alexis Mosimann, author, performer, director / Anette Gillard, co-director Running time: 1h Show for all audiences aged 10 and over
Mathieu with his guitar and Filipe with his seriousness, the duo will try to tell you three stories. The key word here is try… Between escaping notes and forgetting bodies, the duo explore the tales of the Big Bad Wolf. But overwhelmed by this protagonist and by the desire to please, they lose control. Perhaps the wolf isn’t the only one chasing his prey: the storytellers take absurd detours in pursuit of the thread of their tale, the better to understand and tame it. Scary, hungry, insatiable, the Wolf is the image of this show… but also of its audience.
10:00 pm: Disguised jass tournament
Author, composer and performer freely inspired by the great tradition of French chanson, Fernan is the rising star of the local scene. Encouraged by his mother and friends from the workers’ hostel, he enchanted audiences with his compositions on guitar and harmonica. And although he puts his heart into his work, he sometimes encounters interpretation problems…
Cie Laisse Mamie Faire With and about : Christophe Magdinier / Directed by Helene Gustin
A cabaret tale based on Andersen’s Poucelina. Songs, glitter, drama and two crazy storytellers recount the adventures of a little girl in a dangerous world. 200 years after Andersen, here’s an adaptation of this classic tale with humor and lightness, to the rhythm of the piano bar. Running time: 50 min. Cie Theatalie With Coline Cheignon, Benedicte Bock and Lucien Craviatto Director: Laetitia Miserez Show for all ages 6 and up
7:30 p.m.: The big CTC (clown cabaret) at La Yourte enchantée
with : Sophie Ammann, Caroline Beuchat, Margaux Kissling, Alexandre Vallet and others yet to be announced. Discover the program live that evening.
9:00 pm: Lucien
Little prince of the piano, he whips out funky-pop solos at the turn of his fingers. Lucien takes the microphone and surrounds himself with machines to create his songs and spread his colorful electro-pop style. Alone, from creation to stage, he weaves a universe with his three life principles: poetry, humor and politics.
Macbeth, the cursed play, the one that causes accidents, drives its actors mad and is no longer dared to be performed. But today, four valiant lords of the theater valiantly take up the challenge, hiding behind puppets. Macbeth… or almost, it’s almost the story, almost the text, almost the scenes, almost the characters of Shakespeare… with one small detail: what would happen if we decided that tragedy doesn’t have to be serious? A playful way to discover or rediscover one of Shakespeare’s classics! With Maya Bringhen, Charlotte Chabbey alternating with Salma Gsiler, Mathieu Fernandez-Villacanas, Adriano Rausa Music Mathieu Fernandez-Villacanas Adaptation, direction and puppet construction Maya Bringhen
All public ages 10 and up – puppets – theater object theater
A duo born of a shared fascination for the glottal blow.
Having both grown up in an urban environment, Quentin and Olivia began yodelling at the ages of 25 and 33 – their motto: “deny yourself nothing, surf the poetry of the moment”.
He and she approach yodeling as a rustic, archaic song that transcends natural and neural boundaries.
With passion and overzealousness, Quentin and Olivia “test the resonance of manhole covers and the harmonies of plastic while aspiring to the purity of heights.”
A humorous, offbeat guided tour of the baths. Jérôme Poulain, seconded by the “Finance, Marketing and Heritage” department, will be assisted by the town’s oldest youth worker, Monsieur Hervé. Jérôme Poulain is particularly interested in the little things in history: the things we’ve forgotten, the things we don’t want to remember and the things we didn’t even know existed. On a journey of a thousand scents, these two off-the-beaten-path guides shed light on local historical heritage, civic initiative, political scandals and murky financial affairs that were never pursued.
9pm to 11:30pm: karaoke & dancefloor
Basel’s legendary group of revolutionary musical performers. Founded in Basel, Switzerland, in the mid-1980s, Les Reines Prochaines are a polymorphous collective combining punk-inspired music, performance and the visual arts. Feminist women, the Reines Prochaines aim to put into practice, on a daily basis, a form of self-managed collective, where each is an author and can realize her own projects, but where each is also at the service of the creations of others and assumes a multiplicity of roles, in the idea of a refusal of the division of labor.
9pm to 11:30pm: karaoke & dancefloor
A humorous, offbeat talk on the dangers of cheese. All the truth about the dangers of cheese!!!
Mr Grappin, from the very serious Observatoire des Risques Alimentaires, invites you to an information meeting on the risks associated with eating raw-milk cheeses. From overweight to the transalpine threat, from intestinal wars to bacteriological invasions, you’ll learn all about the dangers lurking in every bite. “Cheese is to the landlubber what shipwreck is to the sailor”, as Captain Cousteau once said. Thanks to this illustrated lecture, you won’t be able to say you didn’t know.
9pm to 11:30pm: karaoke & dancefloor
Why am I standing here in front of you? What exactly am I looking for?
What about you? By the way! What are you doing here? What are you looking for? To find something? To take? To give? Between you and me… what exactly do you want from our relationship? Do you know me? Or have you come to me like someone answering a classified ad?
After an hour together, one thing’s for sure: we’ll recognize each other. An egocentric show of sharing, shamelessness, absolute humor and infinite love.
9pm to 11:30pm: karaoke & dancefloor
An aesthete of black, Perceval likes to draw black horses in his spare time on a desert of ash, with a burnt tree here and a raven there. But most of the time, he sings songs from the world of Soleil Noir. Trying to muster his strength to show the audience that yes, he is sensitive, that yes, you shouldn’t speak ill of people who are sad, and especially of him, Perceval transports us to the other side of the mirror. And it’s scary… It’s scary because once you’ve taken all your bearings away, you don’t know where you are anymore. He himself doesn’t know what he’s doing on stage, gets angry and, like the blind man whistling at a ghost dog, washes up heavily on the spectator’s beach. At least he’s getting somewhere. Right in front of them. And that’s enough.
The funniest and deepest and most sensitive guy in the whole universe
8:30 p.m.: Post Tenebrass Band fanfare
10pm: Le Micro de La Love karaoke
DJ set LoveSuprem
Watch out, ladies and gentlemen, Santa Claus is in for a treat! Clochi, clochette, Noël c’est chouette! is a show that will take you to the land of fir trees and stories of witches in love and gingerbread men. All sprinkled with music and love… A Christmas show for young and old alike.
6 to 11:30 p.m.: Screening of Christmas cartoons
A gesticulating concert about love, music, hope and everything in between. Music from all over, with no particular origin. But if you insist: African rhythms, American melodies, European lyrics, Asian material. The idea is to offer a danceable, humorous and festive set, but above all the obsession to make the audience dance while saying important and funny things. We don’t succeed every time. We’re trying to make Genevan coupé-décalé with accents of Alpine gnawa blues, with drums, synthesizers and courageous lyrics. It’s not easy every day. Our motto: “We do what we want, you’re not our father”.
9pm to 11:30pm: karaoke & dancefloor
I share with you my guitar compositions born this year in the storm and big bang of life. I’ve fished out a North Star, a beautiful bit of wisdom, roots, feathers on my wings, wind in my sail, food for the heart, and no doubt other seeds to be born in the celestial soil… Where I come from, singer, composer, performer with Orchestr’Anonyme, Sirop dla Rue, Lümé for 25 years, here I am with my guitar on stage to share the freshest, most naked, closest to the intimacy that brought them into the world.
The region’s most beautiful voice offers a firm and definitive answer to all questions concerning life, trade and travel.
9pm to 11:30pm: karaoke & dancefloor
Riddled with emotion and overexcited by desire, Rosie Volt twirls around her impulses, letting her naturalness run wild. She’s on the run, getting carried away, spreading out and… loses it when the “Amür” goes downhill! Her heart’s desire is quickly transformed into the man of her forest, whom she takes to the Everest of her dreams…
A veritable bombshell of happiness explodes before the eyes of the audience. The only real clown in the Alps.
9pm to 11:30pm: karaoke & dancefloor
With humor and a rebellious spirit, the three characters hold up a mirror to each other to reveal the small cracks that scar childhood. In 1911, for the first time, children’s voices were heard in a court of law. This incident was the starting point for a story in which children rebel against adults. Based on the work of Théophile Gautier, the characters play at rebellion until it becomes real. This play breaks the codes of theater: you’ll see no armchair, no tier, no stage, no curtain and no spotlight. With wooden furniture as a simple backdrop, and the audience at the heart of the play, Fracasse brings a powerful story to life at the heart of the action: a moving, participatory tale-show based on the true story of an orphan revolt.
9pm to 11:30pm: karaoke & dancefloor
