In May 2025 we were artists in residence at the Papeterie de Vaux museum in Payzac, France, a paper mill from 1860 that had become a museum about the local aspects of the industrial revolution. We worked on a new version of TAMTAM’s anniversary performance A Paper Life and gave a workshop on creating theatre with paper. Below is a blog about the inspiring time at this special location.
Holiday
When we went on holiday to France in 2024, we had just made the first version of A Paper Life, that would premiere immediately after the vacation. That was a matter of a late booking by the festival Deventer Op Stelten, when we had already planned our holiday.
Nevertheless, it was nice to be able to get away for a while after three months of hard work on the new performance. The show, which is played entirely with wrapping paper, was still in the back of our minds of course.
Excursion
The north-eastern part of the Dordogne, where we had rented a house, is not very rich in nice towns or other attractions to visit but we mainly came there for the nature and the good food anyway… One day, When we wanted to make a little tourist excursion, we ended up at La Papeterie de Vaux.
Imagine our surprise when the tour guide, standing at a model of the complex, started telling us that they made brown wrapping paper there until it closed in 1962, Kraft paper, the same that we used in the the performance we just made. Coincidence doesn’t seem to exist, right?
During the tour it became clear how horrifyingly bad the farmers who had been retrained as workers must have had it in the factory. They had to work in over 40 degrees heat in this dark and damp space. They worked in shifts of 12 hours on, 12 hours off. Not only adults but also children also worked under these harsh conditions. Afterwards we told Laurence, the tour guide, about our performance with exactly the wrapping paper that was produced there and we showed photos of what we had created with that material.
Artists in residence
The tour guide responded enthusiastically and told us that they invite artists in residence every summer who do something with paper: drawing or painting on it, making Lino prints or other works of art. But they had never had a theatre company working with paper before. We were kindly asked to submit an application.
Of course we did so, and after a lot of e-mails back and forth and video calls this eventually led to the residency project that we ended up doing during two weeks in May 2025.
Six performances
We agreed to perform six performances and give a workshop for local performers on making theatre with paper. We also gave ourselves the assignment to use the residency to work on a version of A Paper Life that would be more suitable for family audiences. That version also had to be technically autonomous and able to fit in all kinds of spaces without stage facilities. We had brought along material for that: tripods, trusses, extra lighting, cables and black curtains and a backdrop. We used that to convert the exhibition space of the Papeterie into a small theatre. The first week we rehearsed the new version, and it was of course very inspiring to do that in the place where our basic material originated.
In the evenings we worked in the large studio that belonged to the apartment in the Papeterie and were allowed to experiment with paper that had been made on site. Among other things, we made a series of 3D drawings under the title Wrinkled Life on handmade paper that had been made in the Papeterie. We also made some object assemblages with material that we found near the Papeterie.
Laptop Crash
Unfortunately, our only day off was lost trying to get a crashed laptop working again. The light and sound of the entire performance is controlled by our digital technician: the program Show Cue Systems, and the laptop is therefore indispensable for being able to play at all. This program allows us to compose the light synchronized to the soundtrack as an extra track with musical timing. Fortunately, the problem was solved after a day of sweating and panicking and we were finally able to play the performances.
A Paper Life: Une Vie De Papier
The performances themselves were wonderful to play, in the intimate space with the audience close to the stage. The French audience always reacts differently than the Dutch audience, and that was very inspiring. Due to the enthusiastic reactions of the spectators, the new version got even lighter and subtly humorous during the six performances. Often the spectators remained seated silently after the applause and did not feel like leaving the enchanting paper world that we had presented to them.
Workshop
The last part of the project was the workshop that we conducted for the museum staff and regional puppeteers and performers. The aim was to inspire the participants to give similar workshops with children themselves in the future at the Papeterie.
We often conduct workshops and master classes on object theater, but this time we took paper as the basic material. The participants worked with the leftover paper from the performances and learned to bring it to life, to create images and sounds with it and ultimately how to put together a short paper story.
Below are some images of the workshop and the scenes that the participants made.
If you also want to book a workshop or masterclass on paper theatre or object theatre for an event or festival, check our workshop page or contact us.
Special experience
The residency was a special experience in which the performance itself, but also the wrapping paper as a material gained an extra dimension that will remain part of the soul of the show and will enchant the audience even more.
More paper
The next special encounter with paper as a material are the performances in the CODA museum in Apeldoorn during the 2025 paper biennial on Sunday September 14 .
Then there will be two performances of A Paper Life and before or afterwards the beautiful exhibition in the museum can be admired
Below some images from the workshop Theatre with paper
