JEAN RABASSE
Theatre and Set Designer

LOVE is the second Cirque du Soleil show (after Corteo) for which Oscar nominee and César winner Jean Rabasse has designed the sets.

Jean Rabasse has worked extensively in dance, theatre and cinema as a set designer and decorator. He has been the resident designer for Philippe Découflé's dance company DCA for more than ten years.

Rabasse was nominated for an Academy Award and won the César for his sumptuous, elaborate designs for the 2001 film Vatel. His other film credits include Astérix, directed by Claude Zidi, The Dreamers, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, La Cité des Enfants Perdus and Delicatessen directed by Caro and Jeunet, and Norman Jewison's The Statement.

"I don't make a distinction between the various disciplines I work in," he says. "I bring theatrical, mechanical effects to cinema and cinematic techniques to the stage. I like to mix things up. My signature is to pay very close attention to the details, the colors, the surfaces, the textures. To be very meticulous about these things, and to never repeat myself."

For LOVE the set design began with the interior design of the theatre itself. Rabasse gutted the existing classical proscenium layout and placed the action in the center with the seats in a 360-degree configuration. His objective was to immerse the audience in the intimacy of the experience by putting them as close to the performers as possible in a sense, recreating the atmosphere and sensations of the big top, within a permanent structure.

The concept behind both the theatre and the set is to move the audience. "This show is an evocation of the Beatles," says Jean Rabasse. "I set myself the goal of giving the audience the opportunity to connect with it at a childlike emotional level through simple stage techniques and transcendent music."

Jean Rabasse was born in Tlemcen, Algeria in 1961.