Disparate objects, recycled materials – paradoxes between entertainment capitalism and truly fascinating inventions. The Théâtre Rude Ingénierie is paying tribute to one of the most famous American amusement parks of modern times: Dreamland on Coney Island, which was opened in 1904. The audience moves freely through the space, around this semi-documentary, semi-fictional miniature amusement park. Its gaze constantly roaming between the complete model and details enlarged through multiple cameras, it dives into a dizzying play of perspectives and scales that reveals how much the concept of our society of spectacle and consumerism also marks the transition between dream and reality.

The Quebec-based multidisciplinary collective Théâtre Rude Ingénierie (TRI) views itself as a theatrical laboratory working at the interface between sound art, robotics and performance. Founded in 2013 by Bruno Bouchard, Philippe Lessard Drolet and Pascal Robitaille, the company produces kinetic installations in which technology itself becomes a fellow player on the stage. It treats the most different genres as malleable materials, and searches for a universal language that can connect engineering and art. By transforming objects, the ensemble creates complex, sensitive and original performance spaces.