First program with more women, shows in English… The new director of the Avignon festival promises big discoveries for this 77.e editing.
Tiago Rodríguez, born in Lisbon in 1977, is the first foreign artist to direct this institution. He will present a revival of his play as an eyewitness Memorize who made him known in France. This 77e The publication believes in the mantra of its founder, Jean Villar: “Avignon will unite and therefore Avignon will exist. »
In the video, Anatomy of a Fall By Justin Treet, trailer
“The idea of uniting is close to the theater.”
Miss Figaro. –Why this reference to Jean Villar?
Thiago Rodriguez. – Avignon has a symbolic function. Bringing together diverse audiences and many live arts professionals. All respond to this spirit of folk theater, public service utopia, and meet in this July bracket. The idea of gathering is related to the theater. it is a human assembly that requires a physical presence.
You emphasize languages in your programming. Why did you choose English for this first edition of your mandate?
We will have a guest language at the d’Avignon festival every year. it’s a red thread. We have invited English because it is a language that has become impoverished in order to become dominant. He threw it like a veil. Moreover, we don’t know enough about the theater that is done in English in the US, Australia, Nigeria… It’s also the idea of building bridges where political mistakes, Brexit, force us to fight.
What shows will you book?
Tim Crouch, a fixture in British theater and literature today, presents Oak tree And Truth is a dog to be bred. This is one of the discoveries to be made as it is his first visit to Avignon. I would also mention the Royal Court Theater performance All that, which gives pride of place to Alistair McDowell’s writing. The royal palace is legendary. Harold Pinter, Edward Bond or Sarah Kane started writing from here.
The Avignon Festival tries to combine an aesthetic offer with a vision of the world
Thiago Rodriguez
Julie Deliquet opens at the Cour d’honneur. Why him?
The 44 shows of the festival have the same artistic legitimacy. That said, there is a symbolic scale to the opening of the festival. Julie Delicke has two characteristics in her work that are absolutely overwhelming. His theater, connected to cinema, is a unique offer that touches the largest number. Moreover, his research process with actors brings out a real script for the stage. This time he worked, adapted the film welfare, By Frederick Wiseman. Or a day in the life of homeless people, stateless people, single mothers who go one after the other to the counters of this improvised welfare center of Honor. It’s a very lyrical, very poetic gesture. The Avignon Festival tries to combine an aesthetic offer with a vision of the world.
“Our artistic choices correspond to our political values”
Parity, a hobby of your predecessor Olivier Pi, is respected?
We have most of the themes run or co-run by women. This balance happened naturally. We are happy that our artistic choices correspond to our political values.
Speaking of Pauline Bailey, another talented young director…
Pauline Bale is a great artist of the new generation who experiments with the idea of repertory, writing, the stage… At the same time, she does a remarkable job as the director of the Montreux Theater, like Julie Delique. Gerard-Philippe Theater. His show write his life, based on the work of Virginia Woolf, was indispensable. This is a director who works in French with French actors from the English language heritage of our guests.
What lines can we draw from your first programming?
Actually, I read it after the event… Many shows look at vulnerability, intimate or collective. There, artists offer a different way of living, a different way of being a person. It goes through programming. I’m thinking of The Susan Kennedy Show. It tells the story of a woman’s life in a dystopian era. Angela (Strange Ring) questions the way of self-presentation in social networks, in other technologies, in the world. How to tell about her illness, her sadness… I cannot compare Susan Kennedy to living artists, directors or choreographers. Another program that talks about vulnerability. Pearl – fire, By Emily Monet.
We are happy to give a platform of visibility to diversity
Thiago Rodriguez
This time it’s about collective vulnerability…
Emilie Monet is an aboriginal Quebecois artist inspired by an 18th century heroinee century in Canada. the slave Marie Duplessis demanded to be a citizen, to restore her rights. He lost his case against the state for freedom, but his heroic gesture is liberating. This hymn of remembrance obliges us. We are happy to give diversity a platform of visibility within the festival.
Talk about dance, always present at the festival.
Very present indeed, with discoveries like Franco-Swiss artist Maud Blondel. Others are references in their country, like Mal Pelo, the Catalan collective that represents Inventions From Bach’s music.
Anne Theresa De Kiersmacherreturns…
After a decade of absence, he returns with two shows. restoration of Waiting and a work that heralds a new phase in his highly precise choreographic writing, a testament to the reinvention of one of the greatest living choreographers.
You have imagined a new place, Café des Idées.
It’s a gesture of coming together. As George Steiner said, as long as there are cafes, there will be the idea of Europe, the curiosity of the other, the democratic reunification…
Avignon Festival, July 5 to July 25.festival-avignon.com
Source: Le Figaro
