Mo and the Red Ribbon

The performance tells the story of a child separated from his family, and his imagined journey toward a new life.

Mo is curled up, withdrawn into himself. We hear the sound of waves coming and going. He holds a worn gift box tightly in his arms. He sleeps. He dreams of laughter, of familiar voices, of his birthday celebration, of his present — then an explosion, screams, panic. People take him away. Absence.

The young boy wakes up alone. He is wearing a life jacket. There is nothing around him anymore — nothing but his package. But the gift slips away, unfurling a long red ribbon. The child runs after it, and so begins a quest through the city.

We imagined a joyful, childlike, playful, sensitive and poetic performance. The ribbon first wraps around the gift, then unfolds and transforms. It becomes the central element of animated scenographies that interact with the young boy, with the surrounding spaces, and with the audience. Along the way, the journey is marked by trials — but also by unexpected encounters.

Mo and the Red Ribbon brings into play very large-scale puppets, animated objects, and evolving scenographies. Without words, the story is told through gesture and music, unfolding in movement through streets and squares, through the young boy’s dialogue with the world around him. The performance spaces themselves become the canvas for a graphic and musical puppetry language, created for a very wide audience.