It so happened that by total coincidence, which probably owed more to telepathy, the young Graham knocked on the door of the boarding house run by the Marthalers one day in the early 1970s when beginning his literary studies in Zurich. And following a certain patronage feast, either hilarious or scandalous depending whose account you believe, the young and lanky student became an actor and singer for the tenants' son, Christoph.

From the Rote Fabrik, the hub of Zurich's independent scene, to the Cour d'Honneur du Palais des Papes in Avignon, from the decrepit atmosphere of the family boarding house at the Waldhaus in Sils-Maria with its old-fashioned chandelier, Christoph Marthaler and Graham F. Valentine have forged their path together, never in a straight line but not haphazardly either. Graham F. Valentine has gradually become, from show to show, a figure who is both knowledgeable and comical as an organiser of the hapless communities musically orchestrated by Marthaler.

A tyrannical butler, a deadpan master of ceremonies, an inept coordinator or a blind tour guide, he holds the power yet is controlled by it, observing everything out of the corner of his eye. The pair are alighting in Vidy for a few weeks to rehearse a new show together with the Zurich-based musician, viola da gamba player and baroque cellist Martin Zeller. The director, a modest but radical renovator of musical theatre, a lover of good food and familiar rituals, dedicates this show to his exceptional actor and singer, armed with a programmatic title: Aucune idée. Sometimes in the theatre, it is through the gaps that life creeps in.