HELEN MUSA talks exclusively to master illusionist Philippe Genty about his new production.
“I DON’T think I am ever going to retire – I think it’s all so fascinating,” the great French master of illusion Philippe Genty declares.
I’m talking to him by phone from his house deep in the woods of western Brittany, in Finistere, which quite literally means “land’s end.” And that, readers will know, is the name of the newest Genty production coming to the Canberra Theatre Centre from August 20-23.
Genty is rushing to complete a book on Compagnie Philippe Genty and has also taken on the directorship of the Festival of Visual Theatre in central France, so won’t be coming here this time with “Land’s End,” which premiered in 2005 and has already toured to Japan, to Russia, Macau and Hong Kong.
While written words may come gradually to him, its images that really excite Genty. 
Once fired up with an idea, he says, he writes a script in the form of an elaborate storyboard. “I can use pictures to describe my thoughts. It helps me to escape from my own clichés,” he explains.
In earlier days he did that all by hand, but now, aged 69, he uses Photoshop, which he describes as “a wonderful tool,” and manipulates photos of his actors into storyboard sequences much faster.
With “Land’s End,” his idea was to show a woman living with personal conflicts and obsessions and a man trying to communicate with her, but becoming swallowed up.
He thinks it was in a dream that the first image for “Land’s End” came to him. “It was an abbot on a cliff and a woman on the other side. He tries sending a letter through the wind… the letter blows. She refuses to accept it.”
Then he had a more practical vision: “I created a sort of structure based on raw material, common plastic, very cheap and vulgar plastic like what you see in supermarkets.”
But Genty wanted enough of that vulgar plastic to cover the whole stage from top to bottom, to create a sense of emptiness and isolation. He had to put in a special order to get enough of it.
The letter also proved quite practical, providing a link as it blows through the different scenes. Another material introduction is a huge panel that continuously crosses the stage, with a window allowing different views of the action. Genty’s mastery of puppetry allowed him to make his characters variously large or small.
This is not ad hoc or improvisational theatre. It’s not until Genty has a complete vision of the show and has consulted his collaborator wife Mary Underwood, his fellow lighting designer Emmanuel Laborde and his musical consultants Serge Houppin and Henry Torgue that he will take it into rehearsal with his virtuosic performers.
But just lately, he claims, “the fact is, I’m getting lazy.” How so?  “For the first time ever, I’ve invented a made-up name for my new show, ‘Boliloc’ – just so that people won’t keep asking about the meaning.”
It sounds less like laziness than a bit of fun.

Compagnie Philippe Genty’s “Land’s End” will be at the Canberra Theatre Centre from August 20-23.