{"id":10197,"date":"2026-07-01T16:09:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T16:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/theater-and-dance\/?page_id=10197"},"modified":"2026-09-22T20:17:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T20:17:43","slug":"la-compagnie-tilawcis-performs-flamboyants","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/theater-and-dance\/la-compagnie-tilawcis-performs-flamboyants\/","title":{"rendered":"La Compagnie Tilawcis"},"content":{"rendered":"

La Compagnie Tilawcis performs Flamboyants<\/em>
Tuesday, October 13, 7:30 pm
Mainstage Theater, Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center
Presented by the Theater and Dance and French Departments<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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R\u00e9union Island-based theater company Tilawcis<\/a> brings their latest work, Flamboyants!<\/em><\/a>, on a North American tour this fall. This work of documentary theater with music explores the remarkable intersections of Creole culture and identity between the geographically distant communities of R\u00e9union Island, New Orleans, and Puerto Rico through music, storytelling, and gorgeous projections. 

Five languages are spoken on stage, and nearly a dozen instruments are played, fusing maloya, bomba, and Mardi Gras Indians songs. The piece explores themes of memory, identity, resilience, connection, and cultural transmission through the prism of the Creole experience. It shines a light on the richness of Creole cultures and their capacity to overcome historical oppression.

Flamboyants!<\/em> is a philosophy as much as it is a work of theater. Despite the 10,000 miles that separate R\u00e9union from New Orleans, the Creole languages spoken in those two places are close linguistic cousins. Maloya musicians use the same Canna indica<\/em> seeds in their kayamb <\/strong>instrument (a rectangular rattle made of sugar cane tubes) <\/strong>as bomba musicians use to create maracas in Puerto Rico. While the ties between these cultures have long been lost, their ancient, resilient wisdom, connected by the African diaspora, once again finds a home on stage in the celebration of Creole identity that is Flamboyants!<\/em>

R\u00e9union Island. While a cyclone rages, a man curses his name before throwing himself in the Indian Ocean. He has no idea what repercussions this action will have on the other side of the world. From Puerto Rico to New Orleans, Creole peoples will unite to teach him his true history. A work of musical theater, documentary and fictional, even fantastical in certain moments, Flamboyants!<\/em> asks us to interrogate what stories our own names carry, the ways we\u2019re interconnected, and the cultural resilience of those who fight to not be forgotten.

Company Social Handles<\/strong>

Instagram<\/strong>
@flamboyants_us_tour2026<\/strong>
@le_collectif_tilawcis

Facebook<\/strong>
https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tilawcis\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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