An Armchair for the Orchestra – The Parisian theater reviews site » Pessoa-Since I've been Me, based on Fernando Pessoa, directed by Robert Wilson at the Théâtre de la Ville/Festival d'Automne

© Lucie Jansch

ƒƒƒ article from Sylvie Boursier

Who said “Life throws us into the air like stones, and we say from up there: “See how I move.” » Cioran? not Pessoa whose Portuguese surname means Person and in Latin etymology theatrical mask, you will know why the writer has continued to multiply into a plurality of characters (there are no less than 70 heteronyms) in a more structured structure. close to the interior theater as to the Human Comedy.

Bob Wilson waited until he was 83 years old to seize this work without a specific event, from a viewer haunted by the erasure of the subject and absorbed in the contemplation of the world. The visual director, like the Portuguese writer, is obsessed with form, imaginary geometries and abstract maps. In a world steeped in narcissism, these two artists remind us that we are nothing or not much.

Bob Wilson divides three periods, a blue one, that of childhood, a red and black one in adulthood and a verdigris one as death approaches. Each corresponds to fragments from the Herdsmanof Faust a you Book of Unrest chanted by seven imps, avatars of the author. The scene oscillates between weightlessness (magnificent moment of reading a break-up letter by a caryatid in a unicorn mask), frenetic exuberance and devastating energy. Bursts of shrill childish laughter in a mess of broken glass link the paintings as if any attempt at representation was shattered in the mirror of nothingness.

Little beings like Groucho Marx try to wake up from the nightmare of existence and cause the tables and crumpled papers to waltz at the back of a restaurant room. These jesters of the void each have a “personality”, melancholy or farcical, with a specific gesture signature on a choral choreography with a polished aesthetic. The 7 actors, dancers, mimes and singers from an international cast are astonishing in their plasticity, precision and grace with Maria de Medeiros leading the show.

From the impressions of a red rising sun on a blue sea to the grayness of a Medusa raft, Bob Wilson has the look of a child. With it we become aware of what we have lost but also of what remains to us, our incredible ability to be dazzled by the world around us and its visual transposition when the usual benchmarks are reversed, the top, the bottom, heaven and earth, right side and back.

Person-Since I've been Me navigates between the sidereal void (I aspire not to exist said Pessoa) and a hypnotic labyrinth. We leave undisturbed, hanging from the magic lantern of a Wizard of Oz, with the feeling of long-term navigation in the engine room of two great poets. Writing according to Rilke is “ learn to see », « Is I'm in one of those days where I never had a future, said Pessoa who gave himself to nothing except writingthere is only an immobile present, surrounded by a wall of anguish […] There are ships that will land at many ports, but none will land at the one where life ceases to cause suffering. and there is no dock where one can forget.” The most immobile of poets is our brother.

The images crystallize on the retina, mysterious hieroglyphs, in an exceptional crossing of reality and language at the Théâtre de la Ville.

© Lucie Jansch

Pessoa-Since I've Been Me, from après Fernando Pessoa

Direction, scenography and lighting: Robert Wilson

Dramaturgie : Darryl Pinckney

Costumes: Jacques Reynaud

Associated scenography: Annick Lavallée-Benny

Associate lighting designer: Marcello Lumaca

Sound and musical creation: Nick Sagar

Avec: Maria de Medeiros, Aline Belibi, Rodrigo Ferreira, Klaus Martini, Sofia Menci, Gianfranco Poddighe, Janaína Suaudeau

Until November 16, 2024 at 8 p.m.

Duration: 1h20

City Theater-Sarah Bernhard

2 place du Chatelet

75004 Paris

Reservation: 0142742277 / 01 53 45 17 17

www.theatredelaville-paris.com

www.festival-automne.com