The Dishwashing Area

The LA PLONGE project aims to foster a fruitful dialogue between the two artists’ respective disciplines: playwriting and directing for Hakim Bah, and juggling, magic, and sound design for Léo Rousselet. They explore the role of a dishwasher in a kitchen as the raw material for their research, examining manual labor, everyday objects, and their poetic potential, while also questioning our relationship to invisible labor and consumerism.

The dishwashing area—a space that is both functional and invisible—is a realm of exploration. This everyday place, often marginalized, is teeming with automatic gestures, recurring sounds, and raw materials. These elements offer dramatic and theatrical potential that the artists wish to explore further by examining the role of behind-the-scenes workers and bringing to light a unique poetry found in repetitive gestures and ordinary objects.

Hakim Bah, who is experienced in playwriting and directing, will contribute his ability to translate the collected stories and observed gestures into written material, while exploring the possibilities of nonverbal storytelling through the circus. Léo Rousselet, for his part, will enrich this dynamic with his experiments involving the manipulation of objects and materials, particularly elements associated with dishwashing: water, plates, utensils, and the mechanical sounds of appliances.

They aim to approach this research from an experimental perspective, by juxtaposing their respective creative practices and playing with the boundaries between functional and artistic gestures. The dishwashing area will thus become a laboratory for theatrical experimentation, where every object, every sound, and every movement can be diverted from its original function to become a vehicle for storytelling and emotion. In this way, they will explore the boundaries between reality and fiction, the tangible and the poetic.

HAKIM BAH

Born in Guinea, Hakim Bah is an author, director, and actor. He holds a master’s degree in directing and playwriting from the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre.

His works have been recognized with numerous awards and grants, including the RFI Theater Prize, the Lyon Theater Authors’ Festival Prize and the Prize for Unpublished Works from Africa and Overseas Territories, the artcena creation grant, the National Book Center’s writing grant, the Île-de-France region’s writer-in-residence program, and the DGCA’s author mentorship program.

Published by Quartett, Lansman, Théâtre Ouvert, and Passages, these works have been brought to the stage by directors such as Frédéric Fisbach, Jacques Allaire, Cédric Brossard, Pierre Vincent, Guy Theunissen, Souleymane Bah, Aristide Tarnagda, Imad Assaf, Rouguiatou Camara, and the Ildi Eldi collective.

In 2015, he founded the Paupières Mobiles theater company with Diane Chavelet, where he directed Julie Gilbert’s play *Outrages Ordinaires * and co-directed, with Diane Chavelet, her plays *La nuit porte caleçon * and *À bout de sueurs*. Together with Arthur B. Gillette and Juan Ignacio Tula, he premiered*Pourvu que la mastication ne soit pas longue* at the IN Festival in Avignon. He has just written and co-directed, with Diane Chavelet, the shows *Tombé du camion * and *Manon Worms Indestructible*.

Beyond writing and directing, Hakim Bah plays a vital role in promoting and showcasing contemporary French-language drama. He is the founder of the Convergence Plateau project in France and serves as artistic director of the Univers des Mots festival in Guinea—platforms through which he works to bring together diverse voices and facilitate the convergence of texts and the stage.

LEO ROUSSELET

Léo Rousselet, born on January 17, 1992, in Caen, is a multidisciplinary artist who combines circus arts, music, and digital technologies. From a very young age, he developed a passion for music, which he further explored by earning a bachelor’s degree in Music and Musicology from the University of Rennes II in 2013. His interest in sound design then led him to pursue a master’s degree in Music and Sound Design at the University of Paris VIII, where he explored the interactions between music and the performing arts, particularly in the context of the circus.

Building on this academic foundation, Léo trained in circus arts at the LIDO, the Toulouse Center for Circus Arts, from 2016 to 2018. There, he developed an innovative approach as a juggler, integrating sound design and computer programming into his performances. Always eager to deepen his technical skills, in 2023 he enrolled in a program at the CFPTS in Bagnolet, specializing in the mechanisms and articulations of small machines for live performance.

Since 2019, Léo Rousselet has been exploring a multidisciplinary approach that combines juggling, sound design, construction, and computer programming. His work with companies such as Cirque des Petites Natures, La Barque Acide, Draoui Production, La Diagonale du Vide, and Nouons-nous has allowed him to develop innovative and collaborative artistic projects.

His original works, such as *ECLIPSE* and *FUITE(S) POUR FLÛTE(S)*, demonstrate his talent for combining visual poetry and sound experimentation. The full-length version of his show ECLIPSE will premiere in November 2025 at the Marionnettissimo Festival (31).

Driven by curiosity and a quest for innovation, Léo Rousselet skillfully combines technical expertise and artistic sensibility in his work. Through his creations, he seeks to immerse the audience in worlds where every element—whether sound, movement, or set design—contributes to a cohesive overall vision.