On 10 December 1997, Julia "Butterfly" Hill, a young American environmental activist, climbed into a giant thousand-year-old sequoia to save it from the chainsaws, only to come down three winters later. While her body and mind were being transformed by contact with the plant and this prodigious way of life, the logging company continued to cut down the last representatives of the great primary forest. By devoting a picaresque and vibrant show to this adventure, to human commitment and hope, the Oneiroï ensemble is bowing before the trees, these strange and familiar living creatures, these great elders whose history is so intimately linked to our own, whom we love, ignore, deify, honour, fear and destroy... Their vital importance to our species has come to the fore in a particularly harsh light in recent decades.

Maud Haering, Miguel Henry, Valentine Lorentz and Léna Rondé have chosen to tell the story of Julia Hill through music and magic, because the former unfolds its language beyond the human and the latter changes the way we look at things. The presence of instruments as unusual as the viola da gamba, the cistrum and the theorbo, and the many references to the repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries in England, take the audience into an imaginary world that is both ancient and contemporary, echoing the journeys of trees through time, over the seasons and the centuries. The Oneiroï ensemble, which has already made a name for itself at the abbey by staging four short stories taken from Boccaccio's Decameron and by getting 57 amateur musicians of all ages to sing a 14th-century ballad, Amor mi fa cantar, here unveils for the first time an original and exhilarating show, on a par with the giants that stand between earth and sky.

Running time: 55 minutes | Suitable for children aged 8 and over

Maud Haering voice Miguel Henry theorbo, cistrum Valentine Lorentz viola da gamba, recorder Léna Rondé comedian
Based on an original idea by Valentine Lorentz Sophie Pavillard stage direction Léna Rondé dramaturgy David Tholander creation of the magical images Solange Dinand lighting design Pierre-Yves Loup Forest costumes Based on The Legacy of Luna by Julia Hill