Kumulus: Rencontres de boîtes

The most important things from your life in a box

Rencontres de boîtes has toured on several continents and evolved into a global narrative. Photo: Kumulus.

A shoebox can contain a story, a meeting between people. This is what the audience will experience, when the theater company Kumulus presents Rencontres de boîtes (Box Meetings). The performance will take off in the three housing projects of Egedalsvænge, Vapnagård, and Nøjsomhed in Elsinore and Kokkedal respectively.

The performances are based on a simple concept: actors from Kumulus will meet with local people in a housing project and include the stories of these people in the performance. The local people has been asked to put the most important objects of their lives into a shoebox, and without the use of words, they are to present the content for the actors sitting across from them. The performance is played out as a polysymphonic work of art for the audience. The saying is that one person’s home is another person’s exile. During the performance the two perceptions will dissolve with the help of the content of the boxes, and the audience will experience how an original tale is created as they walk around the players.

Rencontres de boîtes is a strategy, a plan, and an inclusive structure more than it is a definitive work of art. The performance is inspired by the diversity of mankind, for example the waves of refugees, where people are limited to bring only the most important necessaries along, but also unknown languages or songs. The audience listens to the unknown while they circulate among the tables and see the players act, while they present the content of the boxes for each other.