Klervi Thienpont's immersive theatre piece Respirer sous l'eau explores fragility and hope
The Hôtel-Motel production weaves a personal tragedy, a refugee family's story, and neuroscience research into an intimate sound-installation theatre experience at La Chapelle.
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Klervi Thienpont's Respirer sous l'eau—a new immersive work premiering at La Chapelle Scènes contemporaines—sits at the intersection of theatre, sound installation, and lived grief. It is Hôtel-Motel's second autumn production after Marioupol, and the result of a creative process that stretched over several years, growing from three separate threads of meaning.
The first thread is personal loss. Thienpont was in the grip of an existential crisis after the abrupt death of someone close—a period of searching for meaning and hope that had pulled her away from performance entirely. Years ago, when her daughter was one year old, she continued the routines of daily life while experiencing "a dichotomy between the body that continues the gestures of the quotidian and the interior, entirely elsewhere."
The second thread is witness. As a co-performer in L'affiche (a 2009 Hôtel-Motel production by Philippe Ducros), Thienpont and her fellow cast members sponsored a Syrian refugee family resettling in Quebec. The youngest child, George, suffered from incurable cancer. For Thienpont, the experience became a kind of transfer: "I just lost someone, but this child—we are going to save this child." The family moved quickly to Montreal so George could receive care, and Thienpont describes it as "a quest for hope through mobilizing a life to save a life."
The third thread is neuroscience. Thienpont heard an interview with neuroscientist Sonia Lupien about resignation syndrome—a strange, poorly understood condition affecting some children from refugee families in Sweden. These children fell into catatonic-like states, sometimes sleeping for years after asylum requests were rejected. Lupien's research revealed the only path to recovery: the restoration of hope. When told they would stay, not be expelled, the children gradually returned to themselves.
"It was like a spark," Thienpont said of Lupien's findings. "Suddenly, the taste for theatre and creation came back to me. It was as if a healing was happening in me too."
The work unfolds as an assembly of different materials, with scénographe and visual artist Jonathan Girard accompanying Thienpont on stage. Sound emerged as crucial during an early version—functioning as an inner voice, a way to travel deeper inward and to invite audiences on that same inward journey. Thienpont, who also created the solo piece (Dé)tourner sa langue, has long favored construction where form and content respond to each other. Here, the intersection of personal, collective, and scientific narratives creates an intimate portrait of fragility and the necessity of hope.
The details
Where and when does Respirer sous l'eau run?
The piece premieres at La Chapelle Scènes contemporaines. The article does not specify performance dates.
Who created and performs in Respirer sous l'eau?
Klervi Thienpont created and performs in the work, alongside scénographe and visual artist Jonathan Girard.
What is the production company behind this show?
Hôtel-Motel is producing Respirer sous l'eau, marking their second autumn production.
What inspired Thienpont to make this piece?
Three threads converged: her personal grief after losing someone close, her experience sponsoring a Syrian refugee family whose young son George had incurable cancer, and neuroscientist Sonia Lupien's research on resignation syndrome—a condition affecting refugee children that only resolves when hope is restored.
