Esperluette

At a time when means of communication are multiplying and constantly evolving, the question of the bond between people remains more crucial than ever. How can we express ourselves, understand one another and connect despite distance, misunderstandings, silences or absences? It is around this universal question that Esperluette (&), a musical performance conceived by the Lexicofolia Ensemble, revolves. Premiered in Geneva in 2024 and subsequently presented at the 2025 Avignon Off Festival, this project explores, with humour, poetry and emotion, the many forms of communication that punctuate our lives.

True to its artistic approach, the Lexicofolia Ensemble continues to explore the links between literature and music. Following on from *La Cimaise et la Fraction*, inspired by the Oulipo movement, *Esperluette (&)* is more firmly rooted in the spirit of creative freedom associated with the Dada movement. The performance draws on words, sounds, letters and symbols to construct a theatrical language in which form is as important as meaning. The artists play with conventions, subvert the tools of communication and invite the audience to rediscover the expressive richness of language in all its forms.

Throughout the scenes, two multi-instrumentalist musicians bring to life a gallery of situations inspired by everyday life: telephone conversations, love letters, telegrams, confessions, coded or imaginary messages. Musical and literary works echo one another in a dramatic structure where the telephone, the typewriter, letters and even typography become true partners in the performance. Each object illustrates a particular way of connecting with others, revealing by turns the tenderness, the absurdity or the fragility of our human interactions.

In a deliberately intimate setting that evokes, in turn, a living room, a bedroom, a study or an inner sanctuary, the voice, instruments and theatre blend together to bring forth real or imaginary presences. Accordions, flute, cello, mini-piano, singing and spoken word become so many different voices that re