»Sound disturbance« – A young, sympathetic man gets his hand puppets ready and prepares for the show. An inconspicuous, charming fellow, like the next door neighbour. And then he takes the audience along on a horrible journey: his puppets tell tales of brutal, sexually motivated murders. He moans, sweats, sobs and slavers.

»Jerk« is a novel written in 1993 by the US author Dennis Cooper, born in 1953 in California. It is based on a true story: a teenager, David Brooks, became the accomplice of the Texan serial killer Dean Corll who murdered 27 boys and young men in the 1970s. The stage becomes the prison where David Brooks is serving his sentence. The puppetry makes what is unspeakable, unthinkable and horrible become visible and shockingly realistic.

Gisèle Vienne was born in 1976 in Charleville-Mézières. After completing her studies in philosophy, she studied puppetry from 1996-99. She has enjoyed ever increasing success as a director, choreographer, performance and visual artist since 2004. She was a guest performer at euro-scene Leipzig in 2007 with »Kindertotenlieder« (»Songs on the death of children«).

Jonathan Capdevielle, born in 1976 in Tarbes, studied puppetry in Charleville-Mézières from 1993-96. He has performed in all of Gisèle Vienne’s pieces since the year 2000. »Jerk« is one of the most frequently performed solo pieces in Europe in recent years.

» … It is also certainly due to Capdevielle’s performance. What he manages to perform is something that we have never seen in this form before. And that is magnificent« (Astrid Hackel, taz – die tageszeitung, Berlin, 23.10.2008).