We all have a proverb stashed away somewhere to which we cling and which is supposed to guide us to happiness. Only there’s a slight difference between this proverb and … life.
The title is inspired by a series of drawings by artist Alain Huck: “Vite soyons heureux, Il le faut. Je le veux” (Quick, let’s be happy, we have to, I want it).
Built in two stages, the piece explores this shift, this notion of duality. Our emotions and our reason; our minds and our bodies; our social self and our natural self; the masculine and the feminine.
We’re searching for the place in between; the place that reveals “the other” within us.
And what if it were precisely through this other us – an ‘other’ weakened from always having to be more efficient, trapped by its own emotions, weakened by insecurity – that access to happiness is possible? And what if our weaknesses were precisely our fiercest strengths?
Valerio Scamuffa graduated from the Manufacture, Haute Ecole de Théâtre de Suisse Romande (HETSR) in 2006. Interested primarily in contemporary theatre and writing for the stage, he explores forms of performance and multidisciplinarity, above all between visual and live arts. As an actor he has worked regularly in Spain, with Oskar Gomez Mata’s company, Alakran.
While working as an actor, he has embarked on a more personal artistic search. In 2013, he created his company LaScam. Conceived as long-term research processes, the company’s shows are developed on various projects and performances. Each of them seeks to forge links between psychoanalysis, philosophy and art history. The show Necesito Lo quiero was created in the théâtre de l’Arsenic in Lausanne in February 2017 in collaboration with actress Olga Onrubia.
