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« Vertige, Manhattan Transfert » by Léonard Matton – Emersiøn
Step away from the passive spectator role and wander through a kaleidoscopic reimagining of early 20th-century New York. This immersive experience lets you navigate between shifting sets and live jazz, blurring the line between historic atmosphere and cutting-edge artificial intelligence.
Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse (Paris 16th)
About
Léonard Matton and the Emersiøn association bring Vertige, Manhattan Transfert to the Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse. This immersive production adapts the 1925 novel into a sprawling exploration of early 20th-century New York. Through a unique setup, the audience is free to move between different stages, encountering characters amidst live jazz, video mapping, and artificial intelligence. The performance lasts 2:45 and runs from January 13 to January 16, 2027. Tickets are available for purchase, ranging from 26 to 54 euros, offering a chance to witness this ambitious theatrical experiment firsthand.
A vast modern fresco published in 1925, Manhattan Transfer paints a picture of the first megacity, with a proliferation of stories and characters from different backgrounds. In a city marked by inequality, where the breath of the second industrial revolution accelerates the dehumanization of people, the actress Ellen Thatcher, the journalist Jimmy Herf, the French anarchist Congo Jake, and the lawyer George Baldwin cross paths. To best restore the simultaneity of these paths, director Léonard Matton plunges 12 actresses into an immersive setup, split into several stages. As in a "choose your own adventure" book, the audience is free to move around. This immersion is also musical – with live jazz – and visual, with video mapping projections of moving sets, a stylized vision of New York's vertical architecture. Manhattan Transfer mixes songs, choreography, theater scenes, silent films, and artificial intelligence, thus pulling threads from one century to the next. The play draws on three technologies popularized at the time – the loudspeaker, the telephone, and the cinema – to evoke contemporary issues, particularly by confronting them with the use of generative text and voice AIs. An additional – and dizzying – immersive dimension to a play as modern and sprawling as its model.
With his association Emersiøn, Léonard Matton has already conceived two immersive theater shows: Helsingør, chateau d’Hamlet (2018) and Le Fléau, mesure pour mesure (2023). For fifteen years, he has translated, adapted, and directed major theatrical works, both classic and contemporary: Molière, Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Georges Feydeau, Dea Loher, William Shakespeare, or Ingmar Bergman.
Vincent Théval
Duration: 2h45 with intermission
Category:
- Immersive live performance
- World premiere
Our take on this event
Taking over the Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse, director Léonard Matton creates an immersive world where the audience takes an active role. Twelve performers inhabit a fragmented space, allowing you to choose your own path through a narrative that bridges the history of the industrial revolution with modern generative AI. By utilizing period-specific elements like telephones and silent film alongside contemporary technology, the production examines the relationship between humanity and progress.
Beyond traditional acting, the experience integrates live jazz music, choreographed sequences, and stunning video mapping that recreates the vertical architecture of New York. The total duration of the show is 2:45, including an intermission. Tickets range from 26 to 54 euros.
Performances are scheduled from Wednesday, January 13, 2027, to Saturday, January 16, 2027. You can attend evening sessions from 20:00 to 22:45, with an additional matinee performance on Saturday from 15:30 to 18:15. This world premiere represents the latest evolution in Matton's long-standing research into immersive stagecraft.
