L’ombre

The shadow is a figure that has fascinated humanity since the dawn of time. It is considered to be the origin of the invention of painting and occupies an important place in the psychological development of children, who only understand its principles from the age of 3-4. Attached to each human figure, while remaining fleeting and capricious, the shadow is a mysterious double that has a strong power to solicit the imagination. This led us to use digital shadows to create a theatrical resonance cage for Andersen’s famous tale.

Our digital shadows have a flat human silhouette shape and we call them avatar shadows. Leaving its status of traditional shadow projected on a screen, the ombravatar becomes a real character evolving in 3D. The actor in flesh and blood plays with these entities which evolve in a virtual space projected on a screen at the back of the stage. The actions of the ombravatars are pre-recorded beforehand with a motion capture device, but are manipulated by the actor in real time like puppets, which allows us to keep the essence of the theater: a living interaction between the participants of the show.