French director and actor. Patrick Conan worked in amateur theatre before becoming a professional actor in 1977. Ten years later he created his own company, Garin Trousseboeuf, in Savenay (Loire-Atlantique) and chose to work with performing objects. The company focuses on the actor’s performance, the story, and the use of delicate materials, such as paper, relating personal themes with simplicity to a large public.

In Petit Poucet en Arménie (Tom Thumb in Armenia, 1989), Conan makes and destroys characters during the performance. He staged and played in Le Cirque Confetti (The Confetti Circus, 1991), Rendez-vous sur la dune (Rendez-Vous on the Dune, 1991), Mody Bick (1993), Merlin l’enchanté (The Enchanted Merlin, 1994), L’Ascension du mont Ventoux (The Ascent of Mount Ventoux, 1995), Les Misérables (1999). The company also produces plays for children: Sarah et les souris (Sarah and the Mice, 1995).

Patrick Conan collaborated with contemporary authors, including Daniel Lamahieu, with La Petite fille et le corbeau (The Little Girl and the Raven, 2000). From Valérie Deronzier he commissioned La Nuit des temps …au bord d’une forêt profonde (A Long Time Ago …at the Edge of a Deep Forest, 2001), a show about old age that touches the spectators by the expressions of the “marionnettes-sacs”, or “bag-puppets”, with their sombre and poetic tone. La Nuit des temps …was the first in a trilogy entitled, Josette, l’inconnue du XXème siècle (Josette, the Unknown 20th Century Person), with the second segment, Diable! (Devil!, 2004) authored by Fabienne Rouby.

The company, in association since 2002 with the Scène nationale de La Roche-sur-Yon (National Stage of La Roche-sur-Yon), has also produced short pieces, such as Le Bal des brigadiers (The Brigadiers’ Ball), a series of “provocative, ambulant theatrical micro-spectacles with a strong cultural density” based on classical and contemporary authors.  

(See France.)