PERFUME

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Theoretical Scenography : Irena Jacobs

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Set in the 18th century France, Perfume is the story of Jean Baptiste Grenouille, an orphan whose supernatural sense of smell guides him in a perverse search for his own identity. As he discovers his extraordinary olfactory ability, Grenouille becomes increasingly obsessed with inventing new fragrances, which he extracts by blending the bodily scents of young women he murders.

 

Perfume was first written as a novel by Patrick Suskind in 1985, and then adapted to film in 2006. Because the novel is so rich with descriptions of scent, it was a particularly interesting challenge to  visually capture our most elusive sense. I designed Perfume as a play, set in the Circle in The Square Theater in New York City.