(le) Pain – London International Mime Festival – The Place

Writer: Jean- Daniel Broussé

Director: Ursula Martinez

Playing for just two nights as part of the London International Mime Festival, performance artist and acrobat Jean- Daniel Broussé examines the art of baking and the tradition of inheritance. His debut show is entertaining, but also slight.

Of course, its title (le) Pain has a double meaning and both definitions have a place in this show, but it’s pain in the English sense of the word Broussé felt when he realised that he had no interest in carrying on the family business of a bakery in the South-West of France. Broussé didn’t want a job where every day is the same, but neither did he want to disappoint his grandfather who hoped that the bakery would pass to a fourth generation. In a short 55 minutes, Broussé explores this conundrum through a series of short comic scenes celebrating his cultural background while making some baguettes.

Broussé is better known as one half of KNOT, an acrobatic duo he formed along with Niki Rummer, and he was also part of the Barely Methodical Troupe, who turn high-octane tumbling into a dance form. Perhaps in the audience for (le) Pain are some who have come expecting acrobatics, but if they are disappointed they don’t show it. Broussé’s camp style of absurdity has certainly gained him fans, and they are keen to find everything he does hilarious, but more successful are the routines which are more serious in tone such as when he plays a musette, an instrument similar to the bagpipe, while telling a fairy story in the almost forgotten language of Occitan.

Broussé bustles around the large stage of The Place, but when he is still and quiet, symbolically, waiting for the bread to rise, the effect is striking. Occasionally, (le) Pain is reminiscent of the work by English performance artist Bobby Baker (no relation) who once invited audiences into her kitchen. Broussé’s show is generous, but it doesn’t match those of Baker’s, which often ended in communal catharsis.

Directed by performance royalty Ursula Martinez, Broussé’s show feels like it still needs more time to prove. The Place’s cavernous space perhaps doesn’t help either. Sometimes he is too distant a figure. His show would be more suited to something like the VAULT Festival where the venues are more intimate and where the personal is always political.

Runs until 19 January 2022