The Name of the Game
26 August 2025This summer, Company Chameleon has been in the studio creating a new outdoor performance called The Ultimate Player’s Handbook, a vibrant street performance that explores the games we play everyday.
A co-production with Barcelona dance duo, Clémentine & Lisard, the new choreography has been specially commissioned by XTRAX for La Mercè, Barcelona’s biggest annual outdoor festival.
Each year, La Mercè features a Guest City at the festival, and this year, we are thrilled that our home city of Manchester has been chosen. To celebrate Manchester’s presence at La Mercè, we are delighted to be one of the Mancunian companies performing.
The Ultimate Player’s Handbook will premiere on 24 September at the festival with follow-on performances on 27 and 28 September. The piece will return to the UK for a performance at Manchester Day 2026.
Ahead of the performances in Spain next month, Kevin, our Co-Artistic Director, tells us more about the co-production with Clémentine & Lisard, and takes us behind the scenes of the making of the piece.
Q1) What is The Ultimate Player’s Handbook and what is it about?
The Ultimate Player’s Handbook is an outdoor dance theatre work that explores games, competition, cooperation, celebration, participation and fun. We wanted to create a work that invited the audience into a world exploring these themes, and which leaves them with a huge smile on their face, and a sense of connection, unity and celebration.
Q2) The performance is a co-production with Clémentine & Lisard. How did you approach creating the piece together?
This work is a collaboration between the two companies and although we were aware of each other’s work before the process, we had not worked together.
We approached the work with openness, curiosity and a desire to learn, exchange and collaborate. The work started with meetings on video calls months before we entered the studio. On these calls, we devised and developed the ideas, got to know one another and learnt about how each company approaches creation.
There is overlap in the ways we work, and we were able to find common ground quite quickly. At the same time, we’ve been able to learn from each other’s unique approaches and perspectives, which is one of the wonderful things about collaboration.
Before we even reached the studio, we had formed key ideas, departure points and the framework of the world the piece inhabits, so when we got in the studio we could hit the ground running.
Q3) How would you describe the dance and movement style?
The dance theatre piece is contemporary in its language and ideas, but both companies draw upon their deep well of experience in a myriad of dance forms.
The work is charming, funny and has lots of moments of theatricality and athletic physicality.
In creation, we always found ourselves coming back to questioning – what is the game? What are the rules of the game? And how can we evolve the activity in the space?
Q4) What have been the benefits of collaborating to make this piece?
The opportunity to work with some world class talented artists, who are wonderful human beings! It has truly been a pleasure and a privilege to work with them. I have learnt a great deal collaborating in this way as it really allows us to stretch one another as artists and build something we would have made individually.
It allows us to learn from one another, have access to each other’s networks and exchange ideas and approaches.
The collaboration has been very successful because we’ve naturally bounced off each other’s ideas and built on each other’s proposals in a rich and interesting way.
Q5) What do you hope the audience takes away from watching the performance?
I hope the performance captives, engages and makes people smile and laugh. I hope the audience sees the importance of being playful and that games are always better played together in the spirit of joy, connection and celebration. After all, you cannot celebrate alone.
Visit the Le Mercè website here to find out more about festival.
Read more about Clémentine & Lisard and their work on their website here.
#MCRxLaMerce2025 #XtraxArts # #LaMercè2025
The Ultimate Player’s Handbook is commissioned by XTRAX and the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona and funded by Arts Council England and Manchester City Council.