NAGEUSE DE L'EXTRÊME - Portrait d'une jeune femme givrée

Two women, two battles. A single ode to life.

NAGEUSE DE L'EXTRÊME is about the struggle of two women whose shared experience is that of a body weakened, diminished, transformed and 'augmented' by extreme endurance.

On one side, a young sportswoman, Marion Joffle, who, after crossing the English Channel, takes to swimming in icy waters. This discipline, still little known in France, primarily takes place in water below 5 degrees. It is a dangerous sport that immerses the body in an aggressive and hostile environment. The swimmer talks about her training, her crossings in cold water, her icy body still moving forwards while her mind escapes to elsewhere, evaporating under the effects of hypothermia... Nicknamed the "Smiling Penguin", Marion learned to swim after battling cancer at the age of 5.

On the other side, an older woman defies illness in hospital corridors. Stunned by what has befallen her and alone, she talks about her encounter with the crab that is eating her insides and mutilates her body. A body that one day shifts into another reality ...

On stage, these two fictions and realities meet in a waiting room that becomes a swimming pool or an ocean. They both recount their adventures: the apnoea, the uncertainties, the funny side of situations, the brushes with the absurd... Whether in sporting performance or suffering, they both talk about a body they can no longer control, transformed, diminished, a body that has become a stranger to them... They discover themselves and each other in their stories and in the ferocious joy of feeling alive.

"A moving immersion in the struggle of two young women" - Télérama (24.09.24 by Kilian Orain)

"In just over an hour, some truly great theatre, which illuminates and moves, makes you think and overwhelms" - Journal d'Armelle Héliot (25.09.24)

“Nageuse de l'extrême - portrait d'une femme givrée" ("Extreme swimmer - portrait of a frozen woman") shows two difference characters, two fighters, one everyday, the other extraordinary. Two great life lessons! - Olivier's Eye (17.09.24 by Olivier Frégaville-Gratian d'Amore)

"It's life that wins here, supported by bursts of humour and flights of resilience. We look at these two women. And we are moved. "La Terrasse (17.09.24 by Manuel Piolat Soleymat)

"These two stories echo each other in many ways: they describe two women’s struggle to keep their heads above water, evoke exhausting physical combat with the elements, and finely describe the miracle of existence: the possibility of living for a long time holding one’s breath. "Le Point (17.09.24 by Baudouin Eschapasse)

"You'll love this emotional journey that takes you on two shockingly similar adventures. “ Que faire à Paris (11.24 by Guillaume d'Azemar de Fabriques)