Author: Yana Meerzon

Avignon. Dance poem by Radhouane El Meddeb: Face à la mer, pour que les larmes deviennent des éclats de rire.

Avignon. Dance poem by Radhouane El Meddeb: Face à la mer, pour que les larmes deviennent des éclats de rire.

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FACE A LA MER - 71e FESTIVAL D AVIGNON -

Concept, dramaturgy, choreography Radhouane El Meddeb; Artistic collaboration Moustapha Ziane; Stage design Annie Tolleter; Music Jihed Khmiri,  Production: La Compagnie de SOI; Tunis – Paris

A reflection on movement, music and chanting, this performance is about the pain of exile, the impossibility of return or of changing history.  Radhouane El Meddeb, a Tunisian-French dancer and choreographer,  dedicates his work to the people of Tunis, those who left and those who stayed behind. The central image is the sea towards which all the  dancers’ gazes are directed. They  come onstage, one by one, moving past each other, looking intensely at the audience, or rather at the sea.

In the first part of this one-hour show, there is not much action but rather tension and mistrust. The dancers move across the stage, stiffen their bodies, afraid to brush by each other, avoiding eye-contact. Their only point of connection is that sea, the gaze they cast towards the spectators. This sense of discomfort is transmitted to the audience as well: how do you react to action that is devoid of any internal  movement?

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Avignon Festival. Kalakuta Republik: An exploration of music, space and movement based on the life of Fela Kuti.

Avignon Festival. Kalakuta Republik: An exploration of music, space and movement based on the life of Fela Kuti.

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Choreography Serge Aimé Coulibaly; music Yvan Talbot; inspired by the political thought of Fela Kuti ; A production of the Faso Danse Théâtre, Halles de Schaerbeek (Bruxelles)

Born in Burkina Faso, Serge Aimé Coulibaly established his professional career in Africa. He moved to Europe in the early 2000s to re-invent himself as a European dancer and choreographer, now working in Brussels and Bobo-Dioulasso at the same time. In his subject matter and artistic devices, Coulibaly remains the patriot of his native country; he believes that an artist must remain the servant to his/her community. In his criticism of contemporary Africa, Coulibaly tirelessly asks one question – what role should or can play an artist  in today’s charged world? His choreography, his dance, his personal presence on stage is Coulibaly’s response to this question.

This response transforms Coulibaly’s politics into poetry and philosophy, it brings to focus the divided self of an artist whose life style and whose audiences have become international.

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Grensgeval (Borderline) A theatrical exploration of the refugee crisis.

Grensgeval (Borderline) A theatrical exploration of the refugee crisis.

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GRENSGEVAL – 71e FESTIVAL D’AVIGNON –
Texte : Elfriede JELINEK –
Traduction Tom KLEIJN –
Mise en scène : Guy CASSIERS –
Chorégraphie : Maud LE PLADEC –
Scénographie, costumes : Tim VAN STEENBERGEN –
Lumière : Fabiana PICCIOLI –
Vidéo : Frederik JASSOGNE –
Son : Diederik DE COCK –
Dans le cadre du 71e Festival d’Avignon –
Lieu : Parc des Expositions –
Ville : Avignon –
Photo : Christophe RAYNAUD DE LAGE –

Grensgeval   (Borderline).Based on Les Suppliants by Elfriede Jelinek.
Directed by Guy Cassiers, choreography by Maud Le Pladec, A Toneelhuis, Antwerp production.

Migration, refugee crisis and crossing borders are among the most pressing political, social and economic issues of today’s Europe. The situation is alarming and confusing both on the level of everyday life and politically, with many people in power trying to manipulate public opinion against refugees. Politically aware artists are actively engaged in searching to contribute to their audiences’ better understanding of the new world. They seek appropriate artistic language to discuss atrocities that refugees experience and to speak to their spectators’ compassion.
Guy Cassiers is one of these engaged artists. An artistic director of the Toneelhuis in Antwerp, Cassiers has been looking into the issues of migration for the past several seasons. He not only focusses his programing on this topic but also creates events aimed at educating the subscribers to his theatre about the new European conditions,  seeking to engage refugees to be more actively involved in the cultural life of Antwerp. …

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Avignon: Ibsen huis – La Maison d’Ibsen, Ibsen reinvented !

Avignon: Ibsen huis – La Maison d’Ibsen, Ibsen reinvented !

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Ibsen Huis, Avignon 2017
Photo. Christian Raynaud de Lage.

Ibsen Huis (La Maison d’Ibsen) Directed by Simon Stone, dramaturgy and translation by Peter van Kraaij, set design by Lizzie clachan, a production by the Toneelgroep Amsterdam

Ibsen Huis  is an homage to the genius of Henrik Ibsen, the first European playwright to study the complex intricacies of human psychology and behaviour, conditioned by our follies, indulgences, and failures.  However, the play is  neither a simple staging of one of Ibsen’s plays, nor is  it a  modern adaptation. This is a new script and production inspired by Ibsen’s characters in conflict.  Created and written by the director Simon Stone and the members of this company  hand-picked for this project, Ibsen Huis  tells a story of the modern dysfunctional family, through the 50-year span of its history. …

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Avignon: Die Kabale der Scheinheiligen. Das Leben des Herrn de Molière

Avignon: Die Kabale der Scheinheiligen. Das Leben des Herrn de Molière

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DIE KABALE DER SCHEINHEILIGEN. DAS LEBEN DES HERRN DE MOLIÈRE - FRANK CASTORF - (c) Christophe Raynaud De Lage

Die Kabale der Scheinheiligen. directed by Frank Castorf  (Berlin).  Set design by Aleksandar Denic. Photo Christian Raynaud De Lage.

Based on Le Roman de Monsieur de Molière by Mikhail Bulgakov, with additional texts by Pierre Corneille, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Molière, Jean Racine

Frank Castorf’s reputation precedes his creations. The director-monumentalist is known for his epic adaptations of the western literary canon and innovations in stage design, specifically the use of film on stage.  Die Kabale der Scheinheiligen  lives up to its reputation. It presents a full range of Castorf’s directorial palette.  Even if the six hour theatrical marathon might feel a little over-stretched – do we really need a clown routine with a chair for another 20 minutes? – the play is something to be experienced live at least once, and definitely here, at the Avignon theatre festival.

The story of this colossal production is based on the life of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Molière, his complex relation with King Louis XIV and the Catholic Church, his personal affairs, his theatrical triumphs, and his fall orchestrated by his enemies, all of it as imagined and told by the Russian-Soviet writer, Mikhail Bulgakov.

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Avignon: Memories of Sarajevo and Dans les Ruines d’Athènes. Symphonies of Pain, part 5.

Avignon: Memories of Sarajevo and Dans les Ruines d’Athènes. Symphonies of Pain, part 5.

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A creation of the Le Birgit ensemble, Paris. Music by Grégoire Letouvet, Romain Maron; Set Design by Camille Duchemin, Lighting by Grégoire de Lafond, Video by Pierre Nouvel

MEMORIES OF SARAJEVO - LE BIRGIT ENSEMBLE - (c) Christophe Raynaud De Lage  Photo: Christophe Reynaud De Lage

Memories of Sarajevo and Dans les ruines d’Athènes are the two concluding parts of the tetralogy Europe mon amour created by Julie Bertin and Jade Herbulot, the founders of the Paris based theatre company Le Birgit Ensemble.

Conceived in the genre of a nation play – defined by Michael Billington as a theatre play that takes stock of the state of the nation and instigates social  change – Europe, mon amour provides an overview of  European history, as it unfolded after the World War Two.  Memories of Sarajevo  presents an exploration of the 1992 – 1996 siege of Sarajevo, Dans les  Ruines d’Athènes  is a study of the recent economic collapse of Greece.

3.DANS LES RUINES D’ATHÈNES - LE BIRGIT ENSEMBLE - (c) Christophe Raynaud De Lage

Dans les ruines d’Athènes. Photo Christope Reynaud De Lage.

Born in the mid 80s, the company’s directors and its fourteen members, present a homogeneous group of collaborators. They belong to the generation of young Europeans, who grew up affected by the new political, economic and social freedoms and who challenge the political and economic practices of the European Union.

They have no sentimental attachment to this history, they are ready to ask difficult questions and call European governments to be responsible for their failures. Le Birgit Ensemble is also unique in its professional make up, as it consists of a group of young artists, who studied together at Le Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique (CNSAD). They share artistic language and methods, they research and create their productions together as well. Still, the two productions presented in the Avignon 2017 were very different in style and directorial approaches.

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Avignon. Antigone. The Symphonies of Pain part 3.

Avignon. Antigone. The Symphonies of Pain part 3.

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ANTIGONE – FESTIVAL D AVIGNON – 71e EDITION –
Texte : SOPHOCLE –
Traduction : Shigetake YAGINUMA –
Mise en scène : Satoshi MIYAGI –
Musique : Hiroko TANAKAWA –
Scénographie : Junpei KIZ –
Lumière : Koji OSAKO –
Costumes : Kayo TAKAHASHI –
Coiffure et maquillage : Kyoko KAJITA –
A
Lieu : Cour d’Honneur du Palais des Papes –
Ville : Avignon –
Le 04 07 2017 –
Photo : Christophe RAYNAUD DE LAGE

Antigone  by Sophocles, directed by Satoshi Miyagi;  music by Hiroko Tanakawa; scenography by Junpei Kiz

Sophocles’ Antigone directed by  Satoshi Miyagi and presented at the heart of the Avignon festival, in the Palais des papes, is one more example of a theatre  as a  symphony  of pain.

Antigone – much like the other productions –  is also a play about war, injustice and suffering. It concerns the death of a young woman whose personal goal was to bury her brother and put his soul to rest.  One of the foundational myths of Western consciousness, in Satoshi Miyagi’s theatrical universe,  this Greek tragedy also links  the traditions of Japanese Noh theatre and the philosophy of Buddhist monks. …

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Avignon. Saigon. Symphonies of Pain part 4

Avignon. Saigon. Symphonies of Pain part 4

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SAÏGON – 71e Festival d’Avignon –
Texte et mise en scène : Caroline GUIELA NGUYEN –
Collaboration artistique : Claire CALVI –
Dramaturgie : Jérémie SCHEIDLER – Manon WORMS –
Traduction : Duc Duy Nguyen, Thi Thanh Thu Tô
Scénographie : Alice DUCHANGE
Lumière : Jérémie PAPIN
Son : Antoine RICHARD
Costumes : Benjamin MOREAU
 Gymnase du Lycée Aubanel –
Photo: Christophe  Raynaud  De Lage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caroline Guiela Nguyen has created a four-hour  theatrical tale based on the history of Vietnam.  Its story centres on  colonialism and the struggle for independence, reflected in the lives of several Vietnamese families, who left Saigon for France. Nguyen is an offspring of this exodus. For her,  the post-colonial history of Vietnam, and the history of Hồ Chí Minh–city, the city of Saigon,    the one that “we can tell only with tears in our eyes”, is  part of her identity and her artistic exploration.  The play captures  the drama of departures and returns, the tragedy of unfulfilled hopes and the suffering of misunderstanding. …

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Avignon: Standing in Time Symphonies of Pain part 2

Avignon: Standing in Time Symphonies of Pain part 2

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Standing in Time, Photo: Christophe Raynaud de Lage

Standing in Time.  texts by Rasha Abbas.  Direction, scenography by Lemi Ponifasio; sound design by Lemi Ponifasio (Auckland)

Lemi Ponifasio’s Standing in Time, also the example of a  symphony of pain,  speaks as well of abused women, the victims of history and colonial genocide. Ponifasio’s context is very different from  that of Munyaneza’s because she meditates on the  history of colonial oppression in New Zealand. The style of the production is highly informed by the performative culture of everyday rituals, religious ceremonies, celebrations and mourning as practiced by the mauri women from the New Zealand islands.  …

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Avignon: Unwanted. Symphonies of Pain part 1

Avignon: Unwanted. Symphonies of Pain part 1

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UNWANTED –
Conception et chorégraphie : Dorothée MUNYANEZA –
Artiste plasticien : Bruce CLARKE –
Musique :
Holland ANDREWS –
Alain MAHÉ –
Dorothée MUNYANEZA –
Scénographie : Vincent GADRAS –
Lumière : Christian DUBET –
Costumes : Stéphanie COUDERT –
lieu: Villeneuve-lès-Avignon –
Photo: Christophe Raynaud De Lage