Tiago Rodrigues’ strong words, public discretion

As the Avignon Festival begins, the results of the first round of early legislative elections have been greeted timidly by spectators. The Festival director, like choreographer Boris Charmatz, are wondering about the actions to be taken.

LThe Avignon Festival only opened yesterday, and it must already host foreign events. And no less significant: the early legislative elections took place at the same time as the premiere of certain plays. Télérama observed the reactions from three scenes.

At the premiere of “Hecuba”, the flame of Tiago Rodrigues

The expected spectacle this election night is Hecuba, not Hecubathe play by the festival’s patron Tiago Rodrigues. At the very beautiful Boulbon quarry, a few kilometers from Avignon, he also stages it with the troupe of the Comédie Française. The performance is set for 10 p.m., like all the open-air shows of the festival, you have to wait until nightfall.

Spectators slowly climb the long stony path to reach the site. We would like to feel a different atmosphere, when the results of the first round have just fallen and cast doubt on the future of our democracy. But no. Maybe just a little more silence, less laughing or talking out loud. As if the theater lovers present were almost afraid to broach the subject.

Arriving at the venue, we find the dense crowd of opening nights, the curious impatience, the feverish waiting. Seated on the bleachers with the blue plastic shell chairs so uncomfortable from Boulbon’s quarry, we watch Denis Podalydès, then Elsa Lepoivre, Eric Génovès, Loïc Corbery settle around a long table before the show begins, chatting among themselves under the hushed conversations of the audience. Such are the beginnings of the staging…

When will it end Hecuba, not HecubaTiago Rodrigues, after the greetings, will come out of breath, to announce a night of resistance, on Thursday July 4, from midnight to 6am in the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais des papes after the show by Angelica Liddell. All the artists of the festival, In and Off mixed, will meet there to invite to defend in the second round our beautiful republican values. The spectators are invited there free of charge. The festival’s boss is combative, warm, generous. But it is already late, the spectators want to go home. – Fabienne Pascaud

At the Stade de Bagatelle, “being silent together is even stronger”

6pm, Sunday, June 30, the crowd rushes to enter the refreshing green lawn of the Stade de Bagatelle. 175 amateurs aged 16 to 76 are waiting for a dozen professional dancers from Boris Charmatz’s company as well as from the TanztheaterWuppertal-Pina Bausch, which he has directed for two years. Soon they will be embarked together in Circles, “the open-air choreographic research workshop” organized by the choreographer, artist accomplice of the Festival. The master of ceremonies, cap and pink T-shirt, sets the tone: “VYou are like the dance company of the Avignon Festival and you have given me wonderful days in these times of political violence and uncertainty. “. Elodie, 38 years old, from the village of Angles, on the other side of the Rhône, amateur practitioner and collaborator of a local authority, remembers it suddenly: “Ah yes… I voted this morning, at 8 a.m.! I feel like it was ages ago, because here, we are in a bubble of happiness. Dancing with all these people, being part of it but entering and leaving the “Circle” whenever you want, it’s a beautiful way to experience freedom. »

8 p.m., everyone is dancing, more and more red, happy, abandoned to the movement. All the more galvanized as the dozen pros gave them the pleasure of also performing alone at the start of the replays. The election results? Among the public, we watch them discreetly. Isabelle shows her cell phone connected to France Info: 33.2% for the RN, 28.1% for the New Popular Front, 21% for Ensemble, the presidential majority… “ This is not the dreaded RN tidal wave, she breathes, still relieved. Afterwards, there will be a barrier against the extreme right. » Three delightful retirees from Avignon, fans of both In and Off, share this feeling: only three points more than the Europeans.

Boris Charmatz, finally seated on a bench, admits that he cannot analyze this figure on the spot: ” A few days ago, it made sense to me to set up this project as a very horizontal and not airtight assembly. But when I see the reality of the RN score, I no longer know what to think. I am all the more struck as it is rising all over Europe. As if we were gradually being won over, in our turn, by the populism of Brexit. You have to continue to do everything: dance, speak, write. Above all, get this idea out of people’s heads that art is elitist: proof of the opposite with Circles ! It is undoubtedly necessary for artists to also offer constructive counter-narratives that evoke solutions. »

Patrick, 62, palliative care mediator from Nîmes, who found Boris Charmatz ” very thin and never overhanging » in his address to the amateurs, later encountered again in the quiet streets of Avignon, thinks that having participated in this adventure, on the evening of the first round, is rich in meaning: “ Beyond the obvious pleasure of being together, being silent together is even stronger: it stops us from saying stupid things like the ones we sometimes heard during the campaign. Because the advantage of letting bodies talk to each other, without the intervention of speech, is that they hear each other. And that’s not nothing, today, such an experience. » — Emmanuelle Bouchez

In the Off, a few screams in the night

This Sunday, June 30, the streets of Avignon were strangely calm for this day of legislative elections. If the In Festival started this Saturday June 29 with demon by Angelica Liddell, the off, will not officially start until July 3. The festival-goers are still waiting, and it shows. A few minutes before the publication of the first results, few restaurants were full. Place des Carmes, the sparse terraces welcomed customers focused on their discussions. When 8 p.m. rings, few people check the results. A few steps away, in front of the Palais des Papes, a street show is taking place. While not far away, on the Place de l’Horloge, the terraces are showing the England-Slovakia football match. The elections seem far from the minds of Avignon, in search of lightness at the start of the festival.

You have to walk past several establishments before you see a political face: that of Marine Le Pen, who is in the middle of a speech. The RN MP announces her re-election in her constituency of Pas-de-Calais. 8:21 p.m. Spectators are leaving the Théâtre des Halles where two plays have just finished. “Did you hear? The RN got 33%”slips a lady to her husband. “That was nice, now let’s see the bad news…”says another spectator. Philippe Durand, author of Larzac !, leaves the theater, very quickly joined by people from the audience. The exchange revolves around the show, not the elections. Meanwhile, musicians play along Rue de la République, one of the city’s most important arteries. The atmosphere is light.

After 9 p.m., a few screams disturbed the surrounding calm. They come from the Place de l’Horloge, where a gathering has just formed. A few dozen people are present. CGT-spectacle flags flutter above heads. “No fascists in our neighborhoods!” No neighborhood for fascists! » ; “Youth annoys the National Front”chant the demonstrators. A few passers-by join them, then quickly leave. At midnight, Avignon is almost asleep. – Kilian Now