Welcome
Welcome to the Théâtre Sans Frontières website. For those of you who don’t already know us, we are an international touring theatre company. We work with actors from around the globe to bring you international stories brimming with energy and excitement and performed in their original language.

We produce theatre for children and adults that ranges from the light hearted family entertainment of productions like La Pelota Mágica (performed in simple Spanish) to the virtue and villainy of a knock- about version of the legendary Dumas tale Les Trois Mousquetaires (performed in French).

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Conte Dorés booking now for a schools tour February to March 2009
£50 discount if booked by 28 November

News

TSF in the remarkable the nine-hour Robert Lepage Lipsynch epic

Robert Lepage (Ex Machina) collaborators John Cobb and Sarah Kemp, Artistic Directors of Théâtre Sans Frontières have spent a long gestation process with Lepage in creating Lipsynch with seven other international performers, having developed two parts of this amazing nine part piece.

The nine-hour epic was conceived and evolved by Lepage with each part being led by a different performer, including Cobb and Kemp who appeared in Lipsynch in the hugely successful run at the Barbican (September 2008)and will tour worldwide throughout 2008/9.

The project is the culmination of a long-term collaboration with Lepage after an initial meeting in 2001 a process evolved from which the idea about human voice was developed into the full-length Lipsynch performance.

The process involved extensive research of materials and resources that in turn were subjected to thorough improvisation and then developed into text by the nine strong cast.

The multi-national cast then developed the piece in Quebec at La Caserne an extraordinary theatrical research centre for developing and producing Lepage's many international shows.

TSF are also co-producers of the show as well as part financing the company's UK development work that took place at Northern Stage in Newcastle, where the company took up a residency in February 2007. The feedback received during this process was invaluable and has fed into subsequent rehearsal periods.

"The voice is internal machinery that finds its ultimate expression outside the body but to examine it and try to understand it properly, one needs to pull away from the visual stimuli for a while and go where the voice is 'seated'. As in our other shows, the form and structure of Lipsynch is baroque and unconstrained but this time the characters seem to have emerged from a place that is more profound."

Robert Lepage

"Sarah Kemp is magnificent as an incest-wrecked northern prostitute, and John Cobb is side-splitting as an ancient speech therapist with Alzheimer's. Mandatory viewing."

Paul Taylor, The Independent

Confirmed tour dates for 2008

The Festival de Otoño
15-16 November 2008
Châlons-en-Champagne (France)

La Comète
Scène Nationale de Châlons-en-Champagne
25 - 99 November 2008
Le Havre (France)

From more information on the Lipsynch world tour please visit www.lacaserne.net

As result of all the hard work and diversity the company was congratulated at the our annual review with the Arts Council England, North East.

'TSF has had a very successful year producing a diverse range of theatre and touring and developing work to a wide range of international partners. The production of Lipsynch at the Barbican was very well received and is a testament to the quality of the work being produced by the company.'

Fiona McKeown
Arts Council RFO Annual Review 2008

more about tsf
The autumn 2008 newsletter is available here