HONDA ROMANCE

Honda Romance is a choreography of sensitivity, an exploration of imbalance and interconnectedness. Walking, dancing, singing, and gravity become metaphors for inner movement—a constant adjustment that shapes our lives. Inspired by Germaine de Staël (On the Influence of Passions on the Happiness of Individuals and Nations), the piece seeks to portray the emotional movements that reside in every heart.

My work has always explored this interpretation of gravity—meaning balance. Whether emotional or physical, balance is nothing more than a transitory state: a continual rebalancing of imbalance. It doesn’t exist as such, just as happiness is a daily reinvention, a constant readjustment in the face of adversity.

The mysterious title plays with polysemy. Honda refers to a car manufacturer launching satellites in 2030, but also means, in various languages: existence, rice field, slingshot, lively, origin, book, family, and “my solid crew.” As for Romance, often associated with love, it originally referred to “a musical piece of simple style.” Honda Romance questions the richness of language and its ability to multiply meanings. In an age of algorithms and the oversimplification of meaning for the sake of speed, the choice to linger on words becomes a poetic one—a vital impulse.

On stage, a satellite-narrator—symbolizing the link between technology and feeling—observes 11 performers in perpetual, insolent, fragile, and humorous motion. This unceasing ballet responds to a score of 200 emotions, where gesture becomes a form of self-defense against emotional turbulence.

The omnipresent music of Tsirihaka Harrivel and Rebeka Warrior enters into dialogue with three wind-explosion cannons, sweeping away words, actions, objects, and performers’ bodies.

In this world flooded with information—where likes, messages, and images vanish as quickly as they appear—digital memory persists. It reconfigures itself in ephemeral fragments: old photos reshuffled into a slideshow, a lost voice resurfacing in a voice message, a long-forgotten unsent text draft—like a sentence suspended in time.

Honda Romance is a reflection on impermanence, the passage of time, and the nostalgia tied to digital objects and memories. It’s clear that everything passes.

However, what should remain is not nothingness, but the love of the fact that everything passes.

Emptiness is not a void, but a space for transformation.

HONDA ROMANCE – Premiere from September 23 to 28 at the Comédie de Genève

Writing and performance Vimala Pons
Music composition Tsirihaka Harrivel
Choral music composition Rebeka Warrior
With the singers from Miroirs Étendus Sabianka Bencsik, Joseph Decange, Océane Deweirder, François Gardeil, Myriam Jarmache, Mariam Lompo, Flor Paichard, Firoozeh Raeesdana, Vic Requier, Léa Tro
Artistic collaboration Fiona Monbet and Romain Louveau for direction, adaptation, and musical arrangement
Scenographic research Benjamin Bertrand, Marion Flament, and Vimala Pons
Scenographic perspective Marion Flament
General stage management Benjamin Bertrand, Marc Chevillon
Lighting design Arnaud Pierrel
Sound design Anaëlle Marsollier
Costume design Marie La Rocca
Costume assistant Anne Tesson
Artistic collaboration and coordination Émeline Hervé
Set construction Workshops of the Comédie de Genève

With the full administrative, technical, and production teams of the Comédie de Genève

Production TOUT ÇA / QUE ÇA and Comédie de Genève
Co-production MC2: Maison de la Culture de Grenoble, Les Nuits de Fourvière – International Festival of the Lyon Metropolis, Festival d’Automne – Paris, Centre Dramatique National de Tours – Théâtre Olympia, Malraux Scène Nationale Chambéry Savoie, Le Lieu Unique – Nantes, CDN Orléans / Centre-Val de Loire, CENTQUATRE-PARIS, Les Halles de Schaerbeek – Brussels, 3 bis f Centre for Contemporary Performing and Visual Arts – Aix-en-Provence
With the support of the BNP Paribas Foundation
Residency support Platform 2 Pôles Cirque in Normandy – La Brèche in Cherbourg, Villa Belleville – Paris, La Ménagerie de Verre as part of the StudioLab program, MC2: Maison de la Culture de Grenoble – National Stage

Tsirihaka Harrivel and Vimala Pons are associate artists at CENTQUATRE (Paris) and Le Lieu Unique (Nantes)
Vimala Pons is an associate artist at MC2: Maison de la Culture de Grenoble – National Stage, and the Centre Dramatique National de Tours – Théâtre Olympia

TOUT ÇA / QUE ÇA is supported by the Ministry of Culture – DRAC Île-de-France

Performance in French | Estimated duration 1h15 | Ages 14+

TOURING:
Comédie de Genève – Pauline Pierron
+33 6 76 59 15 22
ppierron@comedie.ch​