FO’PLAFONDS

cast: Fabrice Guilbault, Marlène Pécot, Julien Thomas, François Babin, Pierre Derrien, Antoine Bouillaud, Benjamin Giet, Adèle Camara

PPA production: Agnieszka Imiela-Sikora

Eugène-René Poubelle (1831–1907), a French lawyer and diplomat, combined a penchant for order with professional tenacity to achieve a remarkable milestone: public litter bins. Beginning in Paris, the habit and duty of not littering spread across the civilized world. France recognized his contribution with enduring honour: today, the street litter bin is affectionately called la poubelle, and Poubelle himself is honoured as the namesake of an alley in the 13th arrondissement of Paris.
Mr Poubelle’s legacy also echoes in the multi-talented members of the band Les Fo’Plafonds (les faux plafond – the suspended ceilings). They sing brilliantly (mainly covers of international hits such as “The Final Countdown”, “The Ghostbusters”, and “Thunderstruck”). But above all, they play on everyday objects – found in rubbish dumps and landfills – transformed into instruments.
In this theatre of recycling, thanks to the methodical approach to inanimate objects based on knowledge from violin making, watchmaking and materials engineering, everything is reborn as music: curtain rails, irons, toasters, bottles, plastic containers, foil, nails, cookers, washing machines. Les Fo’Plafonds demonstrate that a rusty pipe struck with a hammer can produce a note as pure as a Steinway grand piano’s finest A. And that the transformation of noise into rhythm, melody and harmony has a philosophical dimension: miracles happen everywhere, every day, especially in places where no one is looking for them.

#LesFoPlafonds @lesfoplafonds

Photo: Dominique Plaideau