"The minstrel show" may be perceived of as an infinite inversion and reversal of the signs of identity and power. The staging of opposing and contradictory characters - white-black, man-woman, master-slave - questions with lightness and panache the notions of race, class and gender. It prefigures many forms of 20th century American entertainment : vaudeville, burlesque, slapstick, stand up comedy, even rap.

Our work is drawn from the collective memory of popular imagery - to a great extent buried and more often than not burlesque - and the intimate lives of the performers. If some of these elements can shock, it is not a question to attenuate these aspects, but to expose them to the public in the theater, a space of exhibition, to create a dialogue and a reflexion.

"BLACK'N'BLUES" plays with the specific elements and mechanisms of the minstrel show: blackface, masks, cross-dressing, song-and-dance, parades, dance and oral battles. With the same light and playful spirit we cover current events, and stage the present. In a scenery of painted backdrops and wooden palissades evoking 19e century popular theater, the performers dance, sing and play a contemporary minstrel show that, through parody, liberates the critical forces that laughter provokes.

The music and songs from "BLACK'N'BLUES" cover a vast period from 1830 to the present, and notably Minstrel songs from 1830 to 1860, Coon songs from 1900, Blues from the 20's and 30's, Soul and R&B from the 50's and 60's and Rap from the 80's until today. Mathieu Grenier does the arrangements, plays the piano and other instruments. Everyone sings and plays percussions.