K Samka

Les Baladins du Miroir
The story behind Les Baladins du Miroir is closely intertwined with that of Nele Paxinou, whose theatrical career started in the Rideau de Bruxelles company when she was twenty years old. By a twist of fate, Nele was forced to give up her acting career.
She then studied alongside Armand Delcampe, at the Centre d’Études Théâtrales of Louvain-la-Neuve, before returning to the Rideau de Bruxelles as a Stage Director. She soon realized that there was a gap between the theater of her dreams and the one she had been practicing until then. She now wanted to create a united company which would be fully committed to the theatrical life.

The Théâtre du Miroir was born out of an encounter and of the will to recreate The Sun Sets written by the beloved Ghelderode, while stepping out of the traditional theatrical setting. The show is therefore organized in a disused church: the Les Brigittines Chapel in Brussels, near the Sablon. And this is how our journey started; a very long journey!

Why the choice of the word “miroir” (mirror)? “Not to go to the theater is like making one’s toilet without a mirror.” Arthur Schopenhauer used to say. What is theater but the mirror of life? The small door that leads to the mysteries of the soul? According to Lacan, disciple of Freud, the mirror stage induces the creation of one’s personality.
The Stage Director Jean-Claude Idée presents the Théâtre du Miroir with a project: a traveling show that would perform for the neighborhoods of Brussels on a carriage. It is called “Kwiebe Kwiebus” and is an adaptation of Journey around My Flanders by Michel de Ghelderode, for whom Nele has an inextinguishable passion!
That’s how the decisive encounter that will later give rise to Les Baladins du Miroir takes place! Marco Taillebuis, who has worked with a Brazilian theater company, and Benoit Postic, who mainly practices mime, are hired at once! The actor Denis Lavant also joins in.
Everything clicks into place; the vocation is born: bring great authors to the stage to reunite them with the largest possible audience, comprised of warm and demanding individuals who are ready to be seduced and captivated, and free to leave the circle of spectators without leaving a penny if the show bores them!

As early as winter 1980, the Théâtre du Miroir acquires its first trailer. The company plays for the first time under a rented big top during a tour of the municipalities of Brussels; the very warm reception from the public and the press gives birth to a new project.
At the beginning of the year, the company prepares Voltaire’s Zadig. In the summer, the show, presented during a 3-month tour in the south of France, is praised by the press: “A company that goes down in the streets and reaches out to its audience, which serves as its mirror, with no big top, on a moving stage, and all that, for free.” (Midi Libre)
At the time, the convoy counts three trailers and three trucks.
A year later, le Théâtre du Miroir splits up due to disagreements between members of the group. Les Baladins du Miroir were born out of this separation, under the leadership of Nele, Marco Taillebuis and Benoit Postic.
Les Baladins play Zadig successfully in Belgium and in France in 1982 and recreate La Fontaine’s Fables the following year.

Zabou Breitman - Cabotine
Actress and director, she creates in 2017, in Paris, her own company Cabotine (“ham actress”). Daughter of Jean-Claude Deret, author and actor, and Céline Leger, actress, Zabou Breitman is immersed in theatre since her childhood. At the age of four she‘s in the television serial Thierry La Fronde: her father had written the serial and created the character, her mother was playing the part of Isabelle. She studied movie, modern Greek and English.

In movies, she starts with Elle voit des Nains Partout!/She Sees Dwarves Everywhere! She’s also in La Baule-les Pins, Cuisine et Dépendances/Kitchen and Outbuildings, as well as in Ma Petite Entreprise/My Little Business, or The Crisis by Coline Serreau. In 2002 she plays in Un Monde Presque Paisible/An Almost Peaceful World by Michel Deville. Then comes Le Premier Jour du Reste de ta Vie/The First Day of the Rest of your Life. She’s the partner of Guillaume Canet in Narco (2004). Follow L’Exercice de l’Etat/The Minister by Pierre Schoeller, Discount by Louis-Julien Petit, C’est le Métier qui Rentre/It’s Just Learning the Hard Way by Diane Kurys and Je Compte sur Vous/Thank you for Calling by Pascal Elbé.

In 2001 she directs her first feature film Se Souvenir des Belles Choses/Beautiful Memories, a drama about memory that earns her three César Award including best first film. L’Homme de sa Vie/The Man of her Life, her second film, is on release in 2006, in 2009 Je l’aimais/I Used to Love Him, adapted from Anna Gavalda’s novel and in 2010 No et Moi/No and Me, from the novel by Delphine de Vigan. On stage she plays under the direction of Roger Planchon in Geoges Dandin by Molière (1987), of Jacques Weber in Tartuffe by Molière (1995), of Bernard Murat in Skylight by David Hare (1998), Daniel Benoin in La Jeune Fille et la Mort/Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman (1999), of Frédéric Bélier-Garcia in Hilda by Marie Ndiyaye (2002), of Yasmina Reza in Comment vous Raconter la Partie/How you Talk the Game at the Théâtre du Rond-Point (2014).

In 2002 she directed Roland Topor’s play L’Hiver sous la Table/Winter under the Table at the Théâtre de l’Atelier in Paris and the show won six Molière Awards: Best direction, best show, best actress (Isabelle Carré), best actor (Dominique Pinon), best set (Jacques Gabel) and best light (André Diot). In 2005 she creates Blanc by Emmanuelle Marie at the Théâtre de la Madeleine. In 2001 she got the Molière Award for Private Theatre and the Molière of adaptation for her directing Les Gens/People from Raymond Depardon. Then followed The Company of Ghosts by Lydie Salvayre at the Théâtre Monfort, in 2011 Le Système Ribadier at the Comédie Française/Théâtre du Vieux Colombier, L’Enlèvement au Sérail/Abduction from the Seraglio by Mozart, conducted by Philippe Jordan, at the Opéra National de Paris and Le Journal de ma Nouvelle Oreille/Diary of my New Ear (adaptation and direction) by and with Isabelle Fruchart in Avignon and at the Théâtre du Rond-Point.

Nathalie Fillion
Nathalie Fillion is an author, a director, an actress and a teacher. She's artistic director of the Théâtre du Baldaquin, a company supported by the Ministry of Culture - DRAC Ile de France. She stages her own writings, explores various sizes and forms of texts and works regularilly with musicians and choreographers.

In 2004 the creation of Alex Legrand (Publ. L'Harmattant), performed one hundred times and acclaimed by the critics, made her quickly famous in France. Since then her creations are performed in various CDN (national drama centers) and theatres dedicated to creation: Pling (2009) at the CDN of Lorient, À l'Ouest (2012) at the Théâtre des Célestins in Lyon and at the Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris, Sacré Printemps (Damned Spring), created in 2013 at the Cent-Quatre and on tour for several years, Leçon de Choses (Object Lesson), programmed by Christophe Rauck for the TGP-CDN of Saint Denis, Must Go On, created by her at the Usine C in Montreal, with the CDN Limousin, Plus Grand que Moi (Bigger than Me) 2017 published by Les Solitaires Intempestifs and created at the Théâtre de l'Union - CDN Limousin, then performed at the Théâtre des Halles - Festival d'Avignon/Off 2018, at the Théâtre du Rond-Point in Paris in 2019 and still on tour, Spirit (2018) at the CDN's of Limoges, Lille and Nancy. In 2019 the SACD (Society of Authors and Composers of Drama) entrusted her the direction of the event Les Intrépides. In 2021 she was invited by the Teatro Nazionale di Genova to stage her In Situ, Rêverie du Siècle 21 (A Day Dreaming of Century 21) and she represented France in the frame of the G8 Cultural Project, orders put to an author by a country G8 member.
At the moment, she is associate-artist at the Théâtre de l'Usine in Saint Céré and at the Festival La Mousson d'Été (Summer Monsoon), a position she assumed before at the CDN's of Limoges, Nancy-Lorraine and Lille-Tourcoing, among others. Her work is supported by the Royal Court Theatre of London as well as by the Comedie Française for which she wrote a short play, Les Descendants.

Her play À l'Ouest (publ. Actes Sud), award Fondation Barrière 2011, made her pretty known abroad. Her texts are translated and performed in numerous languages. She is part of the Fabulamundi Playwriting Europe project and is involved in events dedicated to European new writings. Her play Spirit, comédie occulte du siècle 21 (a Secret Comedy of the Century 21) was performed in Montreal (Festival Le Jamais-Lu 2015), in Warsaw (Th. Dramatyscny) and in Buenos Aires (Teatro Nacional Cervantes). Plus Grand que Moi, solo anatomique was created at the same time in Chile, in Israël and in Argentina, at Timbre 4, a pioneering theatre for creation in Buenos Aires.

As a polyglot, a musician and a traveller, she put musicality in the center of her work, including languages musicality. Her polyglot libretto Lady Godiva, opéra pour un flipper (an opera for pinball machine) was performed in 2001 at L'Opéra Bastille and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 2012. Founder member of the Coopérative d'Écriture, a group of writers brought together by Fabrice Melquiot, she is, since 2005 in many experiences of collective writing, as Les Bals Littéraires. As a grand holder of the Centre National du Livre in 1999, she enjoys a regular residence at La Chartreuse, National Center for the Writings of the Show.

She is teaching in several national schools, as the ESCA, since its opening in 2008, on the art of the actor as well as on the passing on of new writings and dramas. She worked with Christophe Rauck when creating a section for dramatic writing at the Ecole du Nord. Since 2012 she teaches during the festival La Mousson d'Été European Summer University. Regularilly she is approached for training courses and masterclasses in France as well as abroad. Today , her texts are translated staged and performed in Germany, Russia, Quebec, Italy, Mexico, Armenia, Poland, Romania, Israël, Austria, Argentina and Chile. In 2016 she was made Chevalière des Arts et des Lettres.

Geneviève de Kermabon
Trained at the « Ecole de la rue Blanche » in 1978, Geneviève de Kermabon got the same year into the school of the Circus Gruss, then worked as Georges Wilson’s assistant in his show Les Aiguilleurs (the points men) and decided to stage La Strada. She met Fellini, who used to keep up with her project, and the show was performed in Paris and Lyon, and then on tour in Italy (1980-1981).

Jérôme Savary picked her out and she was in three shows of him: Histoire du Soldat (the Soldier’s tale), Super Dupont and Le Cochon qui voulait Maigrir (the Pig who wanted to be Thinner). From 2011 she started a long co-operation with Philippe Adrien who directed her in Le Malade Imaginaire (the Imaginary Invalid), 2001- 2003, Le Procès (the Trial) by Kafka, 2003 - 2004, Cadavres Exquis (Exquisite Corpses) - a show based on the Grand-Guignol’s (blood and thunder) repertoire for which she shared the direction, Don Quichotte, 2007 - 2008 and Oedipe, 2009 - 2011. She worked as well under the direction, of Jean-Pierre Vincent, among others, in Woyzeck, of Muriel Mayette in Désirs Amoureux (Love Desires), 2006 - 2007, of Véronique Vidocq in Barbe-Bleue, Espoir des Femmes (Women Hope) by Déa Loher, 2007, and Gengis parmi les Pygmées (Gengis among the Pygmies) by Gregory Motton, 2008 - 2009, of Stéphane Drouet in Les Divas de l’Obscur (Divas of the Dark) by Jacques Vincey, 2011, in l’Ombre (the Shadow) adapted from Andersen, 2013 - 2014, of Philippe Arlaud in Carmen (part of Lillas Pastia).

As an acrobat (floor, mounted voltige, flying trapeze), she worked at the Cirque International Bellevue (Manchester 1975), at the circus Bush-Roland, the circus Krone, at the Cirque de Barbarie (women circus), at the Cirque Archaos, at Chaillot (Grand Foyer) and in various international festivals: Nuremberg, Sarrebruck, Montreal as well as in Italy…

Attracted by writing she adapted and staged Fellini’s Strada in 1980, Tod Browning’s Freaks, in co-operation with Jean-Claude Carrière (tour 1988 - 1990: Printemps des Comédiens of Montpellier, Festival d’Avignon-in, Bouffes du Nord) and Shakespeare’s Richard III. She also wrote and produced several plays: Morituri ou les Marins dans l’Arène (the Mariners in the Arena), Le Grand Cabaret de la Peur (the Great cabaret of the Fear), musical theatre, Le Cirque Cruel, 2002, Cadavres Exquis, co-directed with Philippe Adrien (2003 - 2004) and Sous ma Peau, le Manège du Désir (Under my Skin, the Game of Desire) in 2012.

She also directed Cosi Fan Tutte (1992) and several circus shows. As a movie actress she was in the film Agonies by Denis Bonan ( part of the perpetual bride).

Pierre Pradinas
He created the Companie du Chapeau Rouge (Red Hat Company) in 1978, in Avignon, with a group of actors among whom were Catherine Frot, Yann Colette, Thiérry Gimenez, Alain Gautré and Jean-Pierre Darroussin, and he used to choose, organize and direct the plays produced by the Red Hat.

The company was had been named after a street in Avignon where a former dance room transformed into a theatre housed the creations of the collective and it obtained, from 1993 to 2002, an artistic residence at the Théâtre de la Piscine in Châtenay-Malabry. From 1985 to 1987 Pierre Pradinas directed the Centre Dramatique National de Picardie and was, from 2002 to 2014 at the head of the Théâtre de l’Union, Centre Dramatique National du Limousin. Since 2005 he produced, among other shows, Fantômas Revient (Fantômas is back) by Gabor Rassov, Le Médecin Volant and La jalousie du Barbouillé (The Flying Doctor and The Jealousy of Le Barbouillé) by Molière, L’Enfer (The Hell) by Gabor Rassov, Maldoror by Lautréamont, Le Mariage Forcé (The commanded Marriage) by Molière, 29 Degrés à l’Ombre and Embrassons-nous, Folleville by Eugène Labiche, Les Amis du Placard (The Cupboard Friends) by Gabor Rassov, Les Amis du Président by Alain Gautré, Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry, as well as Des Biens et des Personnes by Marc Dugowson.

Passionate as he is by working with actors, Pierre Pradinas also loved transmission. In 1990 he was co-founder, with Niels Arestrup, of the Ecole du Passage. Since then he lead many workshops, including AFDAS workshops. From1995 to 1997 he taught drama at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre (ENSATT). At the same time as directing the Théâtre de l’Union, he headed, from 2008 to 2014, the Académie, Ecole Supérieure Professionnelle de Théâtre du Limousin.

Recent productions

• 2014 Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov, with Romane Bohringer, Scali Delpeyrat, Matthieu Rozé, Thierry Gimenez, Aliénor Marcadé-Séchan, Gabor Rassov and Vladimir Barbera.
• 2013 Scène de la Vie au XXème Sciècle (Out of the Life in the Twentieth Century) from Bertold Brecht, with Vladimir Barbera, Stéphane Bensimon, Guillaume Delalandre, Elisa Delorme, Timothée François, Léa Miguel, Nolwenn Peterschmitt, Elisa Ritter and Jean-Baptiste Tur.
• 2013 Mélodrame(s), by Gabor Rassov, with Rohmane Bohringer, Thierry Gimenez, Matthieu Rozé, Bruno Salomone and Warren Zavatta.
• 2013 Des Biens et des Personnes (About Goods and Persons), by Marc Dugowson, with Brigitte Catillon, Aurélien Chaussade, Thierry Gimenez, Aliénor Marcadé-Séchan, Gabor Rassov, Matthieu Rozé and Thierry Payen.
• 2012 Ubu roi, by Alfred Jarry, with Hovnatan Avedikian, David Ayala, Jean-François Bourinet, Danik Hernandez, Gabor Rassov, Camille de Sablet and the actors of the Académie- Sequence 7.
• 2012 Les amis du placard, by Gabor Rassov, at the Pépinière Théâtre, with Didier Benureau, Romane Bohringer, Aliénor Marcadé-Séchan and Matthieu Rozé. 2010 Les Amis du Président, by Alain Gautré, with Thierry Gimenez and Stéphan Wojtowicz.
• 2010 Les amis du Président, by Alain Gautré, with Thierry Gimenez and Stéphan Wojtowicz.
• 2010 29 Degrés à l’Ombre and Embrassons-nous, Folleville! (29 Degrees in the Shade and Let’s Kiss, Folleville!), by Labiche, withRohmane Bohringer, Gérard Chaillou, Thierry Gimenez, Gabor Rassov and Matthieu Rozé.
• 2008 Le Mariage Forcé (The Enforced Marriage), by Molière, at the Studio Théâtre de la Comédie Française, reprise of the creation at the same theatre in 2010 from March 27 to July 11.
• 2007 L’Enfer (The Hell), by Gabor Rassov, from the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, with David Ayala, Ardag Basmadjian, Rohmane Bohringer, Thierry Gimenez, Stéphane Godefroy, Danik Hernandez, Nathalie Loriot, Joan Mompart, Gabor Rassov and the musician Jean-Fi Dary and Christophe Minck. The show was nominated at the Molières.
• 2007 Maldoror, from Les Chants de Maldoror by Lautréamont, with David Ayala (reprise at the Maison de la Poésie in 2010, from June 2 to 26).

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Anaïs Muller / Bertrand Poncet
Anaïs Müller and Bertrand Poncet met once in a drama school in Paris, then left to study, her at the TNB and he at the TNS. They meet again and start working and acting, not because it's necessary, not by greed or pride (well, maybe a little bit of it) but just because, after all, they have no choice but to do that: "theaaaaaaatre".

Anaïs has a spade, Bertrand a jackhammer. They dig holes, not knowing the reason for it. What is there in a hole? Two onions to peel. Two night birds who reach the depths of despair and ask themselves what's the sense of life? SHINDÔ was born in 2024. Anaïs becomes Ange and Bertrand Bert.

In 2017 both of them "fabricated" their fist show: "One Day I Dreamed I Were You", questions about the theatrical creation process. 33 performances in 2017-2018 (Centre Dramatique National de Tours and Festival d'Avignon / Théâtre du Train Bleu).
Then Anaïs and Bertrand assert successfully in front of professionals and general audience their remarkable artistic approach: a thought about the art in the process and the act of creation itself. With the pleasure of doubt, as instructions, and the purpose to give back the tough spectator his childish credulity.
To play on the false in order to discover the true, to conceal in order to reveal. While they write their texts, they suggest a rare way of acting, they upset the routine of the conventional codes of dramatic art, they use movies and photography as research ground. Their characters Bert & Ange, a "duo" philosophizing about life with a lot of self-mockery, look at the world in an absurd, unthinking and deeply moving light. In the form of treaties, that we'll call The Treaties of the Perdition, constant spectators will be able to follow Ange & Bert performing around their fantasy, in order to underline the death of a rotting world. We have to see there the poetical will of the authors to gather their obsessions - and also because "The Treaties of the Perdition" that's ringing pretty well, pretty serious, isn't it? It's also a way for them to store away all their creations.

Anaïs Müller
After having spent one year at Les Beaux Arts (Art School) in Grenoble, she attended the training of the Théâtre National de Bretagne. Then she was in Bernard Sobel's Hannibal by Grabbe, at the Théâtre National de Strasbourg in 2013, as well as in Stanislas Nordet's Living, Les Neuf Petites Filles (Nine Little Girls) and Affabulation at the Théâtre de la Colline in 2015. Movies: She was in the film by Vincent Dieutre Déchirés / Graves and in Maïté Maillé's La Mélodie de Choses. She appeared as well in Patrice Leconte's Maigret et la Jeune Morte, and in the series Drôle.
In 2017 she creates SHINDÔ with Bertrand Poncet and embarks in The Treaties of the Perdition. Anaïs becomes Ange and Bertrand Bert. Together they created One Day I Dreamed I Were You at the CDN of Tours, then In the Place I used to Believe I was, There was Nobody in November 2020 at the Theatre of Gap (prize of the jury, Festival Impatience 2021). Next they tackle Scandal and Decline, the third part of The Treaties of the Perdition, created inSeptember 2022 at the Théâtre du Bois de l'Aune. She's also in François Tanguy's creation Par Autan in May 2022 at the Théâtre des Treize Vents in Montpellier.
She can't imagine one day without going to the swimming pool.

Bertrand Poncet
When Bertrand Poncet came out of the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, he was tired but still healthy. Fortunately very quickly he met Nora Granovsky who gave him wonderful parts in Guillaume Tell, adapted by Kevin Keiss and LoveLoveLove by Mike Bartlett. A Gemini ascendant Capricorn, he goes through a Moliéresque phase, play the part of Sylvestre in Les Fourberies de Scapin (Deceits of Scapin) directed by Marc Pacquien, the part of Vadius in Les Femmes Savantes by Macha Makeïeff as well as Cléandre in La Place Royale by Claudia Stavisky (but it's Corneille!)
With Anaïs Müller they created the Company SHINDÔ in order to give birth to Ange & Bert, in a string of shows. One Day I Dreamed I Were You, in 2017 was the first wing of The Treaties of the Perdition, then in 2020 came In the Place I Use to Believe I Was There Was Nobody. In 2022 Scandal and Decline will close the first trilogy of a cycle they wish boundless.
Movies: He appears in Les Malheurs de Sophie, La Belle Epoque, OSS 117, Maigret et la Jeune Morte and in Mrs Harris Goes to Paris.
No sport, for four years but will for sure come to terms someday with running.