May B heralded the international breakthrough of Maguy Marin and has been performed worldwide since 1981. It is based on the writings of Samuel Beckett, who unexpectedly gave the then young and unknown French choreographer his blessing to adapt his work. Echoing the existential forlornness of Becketian characters, Marin's 10 dancers roam the stage like lost vagrants; grunting, sighing, comic, pathetic, awkward and tenderly ridiculous at once, they seem to have stumbled with their strange clay streaked faces out of nowhere into the world. Accompanied by music by Franz Schubert and Gavin Bryars and one single line from Beckett's play Endgame: “Finished, it's finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished”, Marin's intuitively powerful and timeless work is defined by the expressive individual detail with which she brings each dancer's personality to comic and delicate life as they journey in stoic defiance of uncertainty towards a destination that will, quite possibly, always elude them.
Choreography: Maguy Marin Performance: 10 dancers of the Compagnie Maguy Marin Light design: Alexandre Beneteaud Costumes: Louise Marin Music: Franz Schubert, Gilles de Binche, Gavin Bryars Coproduction: Compagnie Maguy Marin, Maison des Arts de Créteil
And don't miss the documentary “Time to Act” follows the stage life of iconic piece May B.
version 1981
and feature film of David Mambouch