Festival d’Avignon, 7 – 29 July 2009
In July, all roads lead to the South of France: Festival d'Avignon, featuring a rich international programme and an extensive overview of French performing arts, belongs to some of the artistically most diverse European theatre events.
While Festival d'Avignon has long since ceased to be a mere review of French theatre, evolving into a genuine grand celebration of the stage, Avignon is still the place to go for an excellent opportunity of catching up with the French theatre.
One of the festival's most aristocratic crowd-magnets, La Guerre des Fils de Lumière Contre les Fils des Ténèbres (The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness), is a spatial oratorio starring the great legend of the silver screen, the French actress Jeanne Moreau. The production is the brainchild of Amos Gitai, one of the most powerful filmmakers today - an Israeli artist particularly interested in the concept of space.
Another event definitely worth your time and attention is Ode Maritime, the latest production by octogenarian Claude Régy, the old master of French theatre - the explorer of dreams and mysteries; the piece takes us into the profound world of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa.
Among other things, the Avignon Festival provides another opportunity to see Riesenbutzbach, the latest stage work of the great Swiss theatre director Christoph Marthaler - definitely to be filed under "must-see".
Those interested in the latest trends of the radical theatre would be well advised to plump for Orgie de la Tolérance, the latest piece by the Belgian multi-genre artist Jan Fabre; on the other hand, those fascinated by the theatre as a junction of a number of arts should check out La Maison des Cerfs and Sad Face/Happy Face by Jan Lauwers's Needcompany ensemble.
The new European documentalism is represented in Avignon by Rimini Protokoll, the winner of the New Theatre Realities Award, with their Radio Muezzin, a production mounted by the director Stefan Kaegi in Egypt; the piece focuses on people representing an endangered profession, muezzins or "human tower-bells".
Alongside the perfectly thought-out major programme, freedom and anarchy reign supreme within the whitish-grey walls of the City of the Popes for the length of three weeks: the Off Programme comprises over six hundred events unjudged and unapproved by anyone else than the artists presenting their work. The actual density of live theatre per square metre of the city is a phenomenon that makes Festival d'Avignon stand apart from most other theatre forums worldwide.
Programme : www.festival-avignon.com
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