On June 29, the City of the Popes (84) struck the three blows of the 78th edition of its festival. For three weeks, the theater will squat the capital of Vaucluse. And overflow beyond the ramparts for better and worse… An extraordinary plank fire, from Avignon at other summer festivals: Bussang, Cosne-sur-Loire, Île de France, Montreuil, Paris, Pont-à-Mousson, Sarlat, Vitry.
“Avignon is a festival of creation which fights so that artists are free to seek words, sounds, gestures and images to say and inhabit this world”, affirms Tiago Rodrigues, the organizer of the Festival d’Avignon . « We offer a meeting between artists and the public who search for words together because it is a public cultural service. in Europe more urgent than ever. This meeting is a vital time for discovery of the unknown, awakening of the sensitive, love of difference, debate on the challenges of our time and imagination of other possible worlds,” continues the director and producer. featured in his editorial at the opening of this 78th edition which will lower the curtain on 07/21. “ Art does not guarantee happiness, but improves our chances of pursuing it“, concludes the Portuguese playwright, a declaration of intention that we make our own, to proclaim it from the outset outside the ramparts and affirm its sustainability all year round!
This is the reason for being Cultivation projects, formulated differently by Antonin Artaud, “ extract, from what we call culture, ideas whose living force is identical to that of hunger “. With theater, among all the arts as a privileged experience, an unexpected and sometimes improvised encounter of the living with the living, which has the gift of transforming a crowd into a people, isolated consciences into communities of spirit, individual questions into shared emotions. When the force of a response crosses the ramp, it is no longer a troop of acrobats that faces a mass of spectators, it is humanity that puts on a show together: whether it is “degenerate” or avant-garde, art is fundamentally an expression of the human being in construction or in questioning of his future. Whether this art is called literature, painting, theater or something else, it doesn’t matter, it just matters that the encounter of one takes place with the other, that both become aware of their irreducible necessity to exist in humanity. Hence the challenge of remembering the words of Jean Zay and affirming loud and clear that The renewal of reflection around what was called popular education in not so ancient times remains urgently relevant! Without giving in to the sirens of the artificial opposition between popular and elite: the popular conceals the resources of the elite, the elite offers itself without restraint to the popular!
Avignon, in and out
So it is in Avignon, with Spanish as the language invited by the In, where the beautiful rubs shoulders with the ugly in the OFF, aesthetic demands with banal entertainment, civic commitment with consumerist platitudes… Names of directors, titles of works can guide the festival-goer in distress on the bridge of this 78th edition : Angelica Liddell avec demon in the Court of Honor of the Palais des Papes, Tiago Rodrigues with Hecuba, not Hecuba at the career of Boulbon, Gabriel Calderon with his Story of a boar (or something by Ricard) au Théâtre Benoît XII, Mohamed El Khatib avec The secret lives of old people at the Chartreuse de Vileneuve Lez Avignon, Caroline Guiela Nguyen with Tear at the Aubanel Gymnase, Boris Charmatz with his Cathedral Liberty at the Stade de Bagatelle, Baro d’evel with Who are we ? in the courtyard of the Lycée Saint-Joseph, Tiziano Cruz with Soliloquy (I woke up and hit my head against the wall) au Gymnase du Lycée Mistral, Silvia Peréz Cruz avec A lifetime, one day at the Opéra Grand Avignon… A necessarily partial and biased choice which requires nothing, other than not falling blindly into the pit of artists!
And the risk is multiplied by a hundred and a thousand in the face of the plethoric catalog of Off which deploys its festivities from 03 to 21/07. Also, it is better to first focus on the programming of a few emblematic places where the choice of art takes precedence over that of the recipe : Avignon-Queen Blanche, the Théâtre des Halles, the labor exchange, The Chapel of the Incarnate Word, the Doms Theater, Presence of Pastor, The black oak, The Carmelite Theater, The smoking dog, Alya Space, 11*Avignon, The little Louvre, the Artéphile, The Manufacture, The Rotonde, the ladder, the Lila’s, At the corner of the moon, the holy bodies, Against the current, The Fireflies… In this shambles of the boards (1666 shows, 1316 companies, 141 theaters), all at the same time charm and displeasure of the event, it is enjoyable to also dare to take the leap into the unknown: by letting yourself be carried away by word of mouth, by letting yourself be convinced by the prospectus offered in the middle of the street!
From one festival to another…
In this disused station of Vitry (94), original train conductors, Diane Landrot and Yann Allegret take their passengers off the beaten track with their festival Theater, Love & Deckchairs. For a guaranteed change of scenery, from 02 to 07/07, to meet many companies and artists. Like Bus song (88) in the heart of the Vosges forest where, secular wooden cathedral, Since 1895, the Théâtre du Peuple has proudly displayed its legendary motto “ Through art, for humanity » ! A legendary site, celebrated by Romain Rolland, where each year the crowd is enthusiastic about the performance of amateur actors surrounding the professionals, a trademark of the place, marveling at the traditional opening of the heavy doors at the back of the stage at each performance . Newly appointed, Julie Delille invites the public to resonate, to connect with others. As Édouard Glissant, the West Indian poet, novelist and philosopher, proposed: “ change yourself by exchanging without getting lost or distorted » ! With The Winter’s Tale of Shakespeare, directed by the director, and The big ones skate well by Pierre Guillois and Olivier Martin-Sevran as headliners.
As to Garage Theater (58) where big cars are invited every year, the fifth edition of its festival will take place from 08/26 to 09/01. Under the leadership of Jean-Paul Wenzel and of Louthe artistic director of the place, once again appears a hell of a bunch of thugs, quick to dust off the boards: Jean-Pierre Bodin, François Chattot and Denis Lavant! On 31/08, It’s going to toast! with the first two in the garden, and even further afield, from the Sancerre vines to the African coasts… We won’t say more, it’s the chefs’ surprise! As for Denis the Great, under the direction of Laurent Laffargue and with a text by Pär Lagerkvist, he will take on the features of Piccolo The dwarf : cruelty, deformity, love? A show that resonates with The colonials by Aziz Chouaki directed by Jean-Louis Martinelli, the horror of the trenches of 14-18 for the Senegalese riflemen (Algerians, Moroccans, Tunisians) told by Hammou Graia.
The famous Summer monsoon, the unmissable event for those who want to discover contemporary writing! In the heart of Lorraine, in Pont-à-Mousson, the superb and prestigious site of the Abbaye des Prémontrés opens its doors to playwrights, directors, academics, actors and the public to come and listen to today’s theater. From 22 to 28/08, an authentic ground for national and international meetings with readings, presentations and shows, a time as if suspended on the banks of the Moselle where jewels and nuggets flow and are listened to which will irrigate the stages of the future.
In Île de France The Trestles of Francethe National Drama Center directed by Olivier Letellier, will be present from 09 to 14/07 on the leisure island of Créteil (94), from 20 to 25/07 on that of Port aux cerises of Draveil (91), from 13 to 18/08 on that of Cergy-Pontoise (95), from 24 to 29/08 on that of Val de Seine of Verneuil (78). Between workshops and readings, they will present in particular Beautiful escapes: emergency exit, an outdoor ambulatory show and The mechanics of chance, played under a big top. Still in the suburbs, in Montreuil (93) precisely, the poster for the Théâtre de verdure de la Girandole affirms this to the faces of the unbelievers : until 07/21, Under the peach trees, the beach ! Without forgetting the festival Paris in summer which, from 03 to 16/07, offers circus-dance-music and theater in the four corners of the capital. Nor Sarlat (24), 72e Festival Theater Games from 07/20 to 08/05, the oldest in France after Avignon!
Whatever your holiday destinations, to each and everyone, reader of the Cultivation projectsbeautiful summer, crazy getaways and superb cultural escapes. Yonnel Liégeois
A selection of appointments in Avignon
– Exposition : Until 07/21, the Lambert Collection presents pawnshop which exposes injustice and the pain it causes: Lorraine de Sagazan and Anouk Maugein, the director and scenographer, collected some 200 objects for the occasion. Linked to the traumatic memory of violence or crimes, their owners could not bring themselves to throw them away. With We never take a breakat Maison Jean Vilar, Antoine de Baecque pays tribute to Alain Crombecque.
– Debate : 07/15 at 5:30 p.m. at the Cloître St Louis, The Critics’ Union organizes its “Critical Conversations”. A special moment where critics and spectators debate the Festival’s shows, the future of IN and OFF. A strong time also to question the art and content of criticism, its role and its place in the media landscape (read: Let them crush the critics! by Jean-Pierre Léonardini, published in Untimely loners).
– Media : 07/05 live at 10:00 p.m., France 5 broadcasts Hecuba, not Hecuba. Tiago Rodrigues stages the life of Nadia, which is organized between the stage of the theater and the courtroom. Nadia rehearses Hecuba (the play by Euripides) while fighting for justice to be done for her autistic son, mistreated by the institution that took charge of him.. On 06/07 at 10:25 p.m., Arte broadcasts Who are we? from the Baro d’evel company. At the crossroads of circus, theater and dance, the latest creation of the enchanting Franco-Catalan company invited for the first time to Avignon. A total art woven with the fine threads of fantasy, poetry and burlesque.
