POETIC THEORIES
ON INTERCONNECTIONS
Théories poétiques sur les interconnexions was an interdisciplinary performance created by the connective Mindroots and directed by Johnny Ranger. The work brought together contemporary shadow theatre, dance, live music, and video projections to explore the invisible connections linking individuals, nature, and the growing networks of information surrounding modern life. Through a series of visual tableaux, the piece blended traditional shadow play with emerging multimedia tools, creating a hybrid form of “theatre of images” where light, bodies, and projections interacted on stage. The performance unfolded less as a narrative than as a constellation of moments—sometimes playful, sometimes mysterious—inviting the audience into a multisensory landscape shaped by rhythm, movement, and visual transformation.
Developed at the end of the 90s at a time when digital media was only beginning to enter the performing arts, the project approached technology not as spectacle but as a poetic language. Handmade shadows, projected video, and live performers shared the same space, dissolving the boundary between physical presence and mediated image. Through this dialogue between old and new forms, MindRoots created a theatrical environment where images, sound, and movement reflected the interconnected nature of contemporary experience—suggesting that communication, perception, and creativity emerge from a constantly shifting network of relationships.
CREDITS
Artistic Director: Johnny Ranger
Performers: Guy Trifiro, Angela Di Lauro, Geneviève Lechasseur, Johnny Ranger
Shadow play puppet manipulations: Diane Pronovost, Guy Trifiro
Performer in video: Jonathan Turcotte, Guy trifiro
Live Musicians: Nicolas Letarte, Martine Turgeon,
Pre-recorded Musicians: François Kiraly, Marc Lalonde
Technical Director and Lighting Designer: Adityo
Costume Designer / Sculptor: Natalia Ponta-Garça
Technical Assistant - Shadow lights designer: Éric Blais
Sculptor Scenographic Technician: Éric Dufour
Percussions: Ron King, Sanjiva
A production by Media Renaissance / Mindroots
Excert review:
“The title suggested a serious, perhaps even highly intellectual undertaking. Yet the work revealed itself to be filled with humour and humility.
Although at times the piece approached a kind of disciplinary overload, it nevertheless offered a refreshing blend of artistic elements.
Composed of a series of tableaux—sometimes serious, sometimes playful—presented within a deliberately exposed stage environment, the performance offered a reflection on contemporary humanity and its relationship with the surrounding world: with nature, with the space of the Other, and with itself.
The work also reflected on the condition of modern individuals—overinformed yet still prisoners of their own fears.
More poetic than theoretical, the creation evoked an intangible reality nevertheless perceptible through the emotions conveyed by the different artistic media.
The sonic and visual environment unfolded with great delicacy. At one moment, a luminous droplet projected on the screen created a series of oscillations to which live percussion on stage responded in echo.
These shadow figures appeared throughout the piece—sometimes formed by the dancers or musicians themselves, sometimes by paper silhouettes in the traditional manner.
Even on their own, they proved powerful, but they became even more striking when superimposed with video projections.”
-Sylvette Babin, Esse
“And it is precisely these almost childlike emotions that Mindroots occasionally evokes in this performance, scattered with moments of pure poetry. One witnesses, for instance, the strange ballet of two giant dressing gowns giving birth to two silver mermaids wrapped in transparent film, beautiful and viscous. After five minutes of exploring the stage, the mermaids return to their strange dwelling, perhaps disappointed by the world, leaving us with the uncanny impression that we have just hallucinated a marriage between Cronenberg and Andersen.
And there was also a charming illustration of the palette of human emotions with two large silhouetted heads from the tradition of shadow theatre.
One clearly senses that Jean Ranger and his collaborators wanted to put everything into this first work, to express fully the scope of their artistic approach. Yet far from becoming an indigestible jumble, Poetic Theories on Interconnections emerges as a compelling, unexpected, and rich first creation—one that moves us and invites reflection (something all too rare).”
— Sylvie Lachize, Chronic’art
