Raphaëlle Boitel - When Angels Fall

Raphaëlle Boitel began her career as a young girl when she and her family ran away to join the circus.

A mesmerizing contortionist and aerialist, Ben Brantley of The New York Times called her “truly ravishing.” Peak Performances introduced American audiences to Boitel’s boundless talents in 2016 with her luminous directorial debut “The Forgotten.”

In her new work, “When Angels Fall,” her agile, athletic performers create a rugged, ethereal dreamscape at the crossroads of circus, dance, theater, and cinema. Everything once organic has been replaced by machines, and humans’ very existence depends on making themselves passive, conformist cogs in a massive engine controlled by the manipulators who watch from above. A heroic figure rises to resist the manipulators and bring fresh hope to the survivors. In Boitel’s world, aerial feats and theatrical invention are the building blocks for a work of fantasy, poetry, and hope.