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Any Port in a Storm :: Neon Lights :: In the Spotlight :: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
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kerouac2
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Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Thread Started on Jul 24, 2010, 8:27pm »		[Quote]
I always want to see as many things as possible at the Avignon “Off” festival, and this takes more and more organization as the years go by. I started going perhaps 15 years ago and was already overwhelmed that there were just over 500 programs from which to choose. But there are more and more every year – this year there are 1092 spectacles in the “Off” program guide, but there are also more and more spectators, as I discovered the multiple times I came across the “sold out” signs. It made me decide that next year I will go the first week of the festival, before word-of-mouth complicates my life.

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Anyway, I left Paris at 7:15 a.m. and my train arrived in Avignon at 9:55 a.m. Most of us spent most of the time sleeping, which was the only normal thing to do. Three minutes later I was at the Europcar cottage in the parking lot and within 10 minutes I was on the road to Avignon (the TGV station is 6 km out of town – shuttle buses for the non motorized).

I have it down to an art now. Since I knew that my hotel room would not be ready, I drove to the city and parked in the underground parking lot that I normally would never consider. I went to the tourist office and got my “Off” card for 14€ (must remember to write a letter of complaint about the increase from 13€ last year – that’s 8%, when annual inflation is only 1%). How the technology has changed over the years! In the old days, any of the multitude of theatres would sell you the cardboard card, which had a little fold over section for each theatre to write the name of the plays that you had seen. Now it is a plastic card of the credit card format with your photo and name printed on the card. Last year was a holiday, the technology was new, and I had to wait in a big queue for half an hour to get my card. This year, they were waiting for me, and I had my card in 2 minutes. It is interesting to note that one of the other places you can get the card is the Monoprix department store. I also picked up my huge “Off” catalogue to start mining for ideas. With such an item in hand, I was “tracted” by at least half a dozen people as I walked out he door. Getting tracted is one of the major joys of Avignon. It can range from being silently handed a little advertisement for the spectacle to listening to a 5 minute impassioned explanation about the exceptional reasons to see this outstanding artwork from the star of the show. I love talking to these people and I try to make a point every year of seeing at least one show for which I was tracted. They put so much heart into it that it is the least that I can do

I returned to the car as noon approached and drove to my hotel – where I learned that rooms would not be fully ready until 2 p.m. I checked in anyway and spent the next 90 minutes in the shopping mall next door. I have found that very convenient for years, but my god, I can’t believe how much money I spend there every day, mostly in the Auchan hypermarket.

Okay, forget that, not important.

[photobucket]http://s450.photobucket.com/albums/qq228/kerouac2/Avignon/Avignon%202010/?action=view¤t=b2ad21c8.pbw[/photobucket]

I went back to the hotel at a more appropriate time and checked in, took a much needed shower (it was over 30° outside), and then I was back on the road to Avignon. Amazingly, I found a parking space and I started poring over the program guide (I try not to do that until I am parked, because sometimes I have spent an hour looking for a space, which can really screw up a schedule.). The program catalogue is a magnificent tool, because it lists the shows every possible way that could interest you:

1. by theatre name
2. by theatre company
3. by country of origin or region
4. by title
5. by style (comedy, drama, music, dance, mime, clowns, etc.)
6. by author
7. spectacles accessible to people who don’t speak French
8. by time

I’m am such a basic person that I search by time. What time is it? 5 p.m. What is playing at 5:30, 5:45, 6:00? Do I know where it is? Run!

And that’s how I went to my first play of the festival. 17:50 at Présence Pasteur.

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This is a private Catholic high school with a nice courtyard for waiting under the trees.

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I bought my ticket, was told in what room it would be, and that we would enter “as soon as the marionette show is finished.” And thus the very first thing that I saw was the extraordinary “Les Seaux” (The buckets) which lasted 12 minutes and was presented twice a day. The buckets in question were buckets of tears caused by floods of nostalgia, as the living remember the dead.

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Then it was time for the play I selected, by an Italian author and called "Les nuages retournent à la maison" (Clouds return home). It is about the encounter between two women in a hotel room in Florence – an Albanian prostitute and the chambermaid. The first exchanges are rough. The Albanian is always recovering from a long night and she throws the chambermaid out several times. But as the days pass, the chambermaid persists and they start talking about their lives, their past, their solitude. The Albanian is fascinated by normal family life in a normal country, and the Italian is fascinated by the adventure of exile and living a life with no rules. Naturally, the point of the play is to show that there is no such thing as “normal” or “no rules.”

It was good but not great.

Next up was “Pierre Rivière, l’âme du crime” (I, Pierre Rivière, Soul of the Crime) at the Musée Fujak. The Pierre Rivière story I fascinating, and I have seen both movies made about him. He was a young farmer in Normandy, age 20 in 1835, who put on his Sunday best one morning instead of going to work in the fields, an proceeded to kill his mother, his sister and his little brother with a pruning hook.

He had always been considered an unschooled simpleton but in prison he wrote a 40 page autobiography that stunned everyone and is why he has remained famous to this day. He was condemned to death, had the sentence commuted, and then hanged himself in his cell.

Why did he kill part of his family? He killed his mother because she was a cruel bitch who tormented his father. He killed his sister because she admired her mother and would become like her. He killed his little brother so that his father would not have any regrets about Pierre being condemned to death.

As for the play, it was a suffocating moment in the prison cell. It was presented in a small room with just 18 chairs set along the walls. The “stage” was a square of dirt about the size of a king size mattress on which the actor rolled and writhed, stripped naked, covered himself with mud, dug up things while telling his story with crazy eyes and an immensity of sadness. He would draw things in the dirt, the path to the fields, the travels of his father, the location of the corpses…

As you can imagine, it was pretty intense – especially when you are sitting less than one meter from the action – so I decided that I had had sufficient entertainment for the first day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D26D_hfeKk

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The next day started off at the Atelier Théâtre Porte Saint Lazare, which is reserved for amateur theatre companies. At 10:30, I saw “Les pas sages d’un fou ou quelques aventures de Nasredine Hodja” (The un-wisdom of a madman or a few adventures of Nasredine Hodja).

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I was not very familiar with this wildly popular personage of the Muslim world, and it was high time to correct my ignorance. Apparently the character originated in Turkey, but he is well known from the Maghreb to Mongolia, and has a fake grave in Turkey and two reputedly authentic ones in Iraq and Algeria. He lived in the 8th century, and of course the name is completely variable depending on the country and the languages.

Nasredine Hodja passes for a buffoon or a village simpleton but he always has the upper hand in the end. The actor told a variety of amusing stories about the guy and it was a quite enjoyable hour, during which the spectators were served mint tea.

An example of the kind of story about him is a joke that even I know (the anecdotes in the performance were much more elaborate and detailed than this):

Nasredine Hodja presented himself for the iftar feast at the home of the richest man of the village (iftar is the breaking of the fast at sunset during Ramadan). The rich man was perplexed. “Nasredine,” he said. “Why would you come to iftar? You do not respect Ramadan. You do not fast, you drink alcohol, you never pray or go to the mosque. You show none of the signs of a Muslim!”

“Exactly,” replied Nasredine. “I am not always a good Muslim, but if I don’t at least observe Iftar, how will Allah know that I am a Muslim at all?”

After that, I hit some obstacles, because the festival seems to have been extremely successful this year. I tried to get into a play called “Lonely Planet” which intrigued me for some strange reason, but it was sold out. Then I tried to see a Fassbinder play but it was sold out “through next week.”

What to do?
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bixaorellana
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #1 on Jul 24, 2010, 11:39pm »		[Quote]
Gosh, I was completely absorbed in this account, to the point that I was getting annoyed with your hogging the program catalogue.

Decisions, decisions! Can you get a printed or online program early, or is it part of the fun for you to read and decide when you get there?

Have you ever gone for more than one weekend? It looks like that might be something to consider in the future, although this level of fun must be exhausting.
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #2 on Jul 25, 2010, 4:14pm »		[Quote]
I had still not found a fully satisfying theatrical experience, and I kept frantically flipping through the program. I thought I had found one, but it was the only day they took off. This turned out to be a recurrent theme over the following days, because I found that I was excellent about choosing a show and then not seeing the small print about their day off or the fact that it was presented only on odd or even dates.

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It was hot, I needed to see something, and I found "Barbe Bleue, espoir des femmes" (Bluebeard, Hope for Women) was playing soon not too far away. One little detail bothered me, and it was the fact that it was playing at the Notre Dame-Lucernaire – I had seen a play by the Lucernaire about 5 or 6 years ago, and it was the absolutely worst thing that I had seen in years. I told myself at the time “Lucernaire, never again!” And here I was breaking my promise.

Oh my god, it was terrible. Henri Barbe-bleue is a shoe salesman looking for perfect love. Since none of the women are perfect, he kills them one after another. The various women were played by two different actresses, and there was also a woman guitarist playing Greek chorus off to one side. It was dreadful. There was one round of weak applause at the end and not even a second curtain call. The 20 or so spectators were out of there like cockroaches when the kitchen light comes on.

I put an end to my theatrical day, went back to the hotel, took a shower, went to the mall – and promised myself that I would plan the coming days more carefully.

I was in the city every day before 9 am, because I love walking around before the arrival of the crowds. Oh, there are plays and marionette shows that you can see at that time of day; most of them have titles like “Caroline Won’t Brush Her Teeth” or “Kiki the Elephant Gets Lost” and are destined for what is called “a younger public.” This is a hugely important part of the Off, because so many of these little theatrical companies will make their living performing in schools or at small municipal festivals while waiting for the big break that may never come. The cultural attachés of all of the various administrations swarm to these shows (and do not pay, of course), getting all of the contacts for the coming season. And of course there are plenty of vacationers with their small children, happy to find something different to do.

I buy the newspaper and read it in the park, and then I open the Off catalogue (this brings me tracters and their tracts by the dozen, the moment I am identified as a viable target).

Anyway, I was on the waiting list for “Lonely Planet” which sold out every day, but since I was on top of the list, I was certain to get in. Still had no idea what the play was about, though. And indeed, I was able to purchase a ticket for the Théâtre du Petit Chien for 12:30.

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Well, as it turns out, Lonely Planet is an American play by Steven Dietz. The Wiki about him diplomatically says that “he is an American playwright whose work is largely performed regionally, i.e. outside of New York City.” This play was actually rather old (1993), but anything is new when you have never heard of it. It’s about a guy who owns a map store and a person who seems to be a close friend even though they don’t seem to know each other very well. The friend brings a chair to the shop one day, which does not please the owner all that much. And then he brings more and more chairs that he claims he has found.

And then the alert went off in my brain: Jeez, another play about AIDS! Yes, as it turned out, the friend was helping to empty the apartments of people who had died and was keeping a souvenir each time. To wrap up the story, the friend brings one of his own chairs at the end, and the shop owner understands that it will be his duty in the future to collect chairs.

Oh, it was very well acted, and I liked the elaborate set (rare for the Off) – it was a wooden floor with a world map on it and various trap doors and other devices to pull into place when necessary.

At least the play had the decency to mention Eugène Ionesco’s “The Chairs” (which I saw last year) as an inspiration.

Damn, still not satisfied! What about my next play – and also a dance program – “Déjà Vu”?

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Okay, I absolutely loved this show! There was absolutely nothing profound about it, and it was actually quite silly on purpose, but that was part of its charm. How many plays do you know that start with somebody frying eggs and bacon and then eating them on stage?

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It was just two guys who spent most of their time rearranging the things that were on stage – ironing board, vacuum cleaner, toaster, television, suitcases, bookcase, lamps, sofa… They talked and laughed about things… laughed quite a bit, actually, as they remarked about what each was doing. It was extremely good humoured.

At one moment, after a lot of dancing, they stripped naked and sat on the sofa to drink several glasses of water. The way someone becomes all blotchy after such an effort and the way that sweat springs out all over the body became part of the performance. After towelling off, they got dressed again and continued with their loony activities.

It was the spectacle that had pleased me the most so far – light, well executed, unpretentious.

What would the future bring?
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #3 on Jul 28, 2010, 8:50pm »		[Quote]
My third play of the day did not seem to be super promising – I chose it more for convenience of the location and the schedule, but I also was quite familiar with the Théâtre du Bourg-Neuf, which has never disappointed me over the years. That is one of the things that I have learned during my many years in Avignon – the various theatres are very faithful to certain styles and content. And I am also happy to say that when they change hands, they almost always change the name, so that you will know not to expect the same things as before. (The first year, all of the flyers and the program will still say “ex-blabla” but this for geographical reasons so that the regulars will know where to go.)

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Anyway, this play was called “Comme il pleut” (Since It’s Raining) and was clearly a “traditional” modern play. There was not all that much to the plot – on a rainy morning, a young couple is in bed. The woman would like to spend the day there, but the man wants to do stuff. He decides to go out to buy breakfast stuff, but the couple jousts back and forth about their relationship, about how they met, about how they see life… Nothing special, but I found it very well written and very well acted – it is actually one of the shows that I liked the most in Avignon, including for the inventiveness of the set. As I wrote last year, these people have about 20 minutes to set up the décor and take it down before the next show. So whenever something interesting can be done with the set, they have my full admiration.

The next day, I was back at Présence Pasteur, in the same classroom, to see a different play. I seem to spend a lot of time in that classroom, because last year it is where I saw the incredible performance by the survivor of the Rwandan boy soldiers.

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What was even better was to see the little marionette show again, because it is done twice a day. The doll cried buckets again, as the man in the long coat walked her around. I regret not making a small video of that show. I should mention that the principal reason for this free show is that the same company had 4 other shows playing there, so this was a sort of preview.



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Today’s first play was “Un jour, j’irai à Vancouver” (One day, I’ll go to Vancouver) at 12:30. The style was exactly the same as last year’s Rwandan gut wrencher, which confirms that the same places look for the same sort of material. In this performance, Rachid Bouali played all of the roles of his adolescence – himself, his 3 friends, all of their parents, the teachers at school, the police, the walls they were leaning on, the TV shows they watched, the wind, the drug dealers, etc. And, most importantly, the drama teacher who entangled him because he was following a cute girl. He ended up in a theatre class, as did his friends, even though it was considered completely “gay” in (not just) Maghrebi circles and learned the importance of the classics and of speaking properly.

Clearly, it was quite autobiographical. As for the title, it referred to the simpleton of the group, the one who had the least ambition in life, except to go to Vancouver one day. At the end, after several years, when the main person has begun his career as an actor, he gets a phone call from that friend. “Guess where I’m calling from?”

It was an extraordinary and moving performance.
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #4 on Jul 30, 2010, 7:51pm »		[Quote]
Wonderful report, Kerouac. It's great that you can immerse yourself in what you could call the future of theater like this. Really like your overview.
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #5 on Jul 30, 2010, 9:04pm »		[Quote]
More to come...
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #6 on Jul 31, 2010, 3:54am »		[Quote]
Kerouac, were you always interested in live theater, or did you just see a play one day that turned you on to it?

Also, do you take notes right after the performance? Your reviews and summaries feel so fresh and you really convey your sense of absorption (or not) in each play.
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #7 on Jul 31, 2010, 5:41am »		[Quote]
Bixa, I remember that the first play I ever saw was Shakespeare's Julius Caesar when I was 6 years old, at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, where the family moved temporarily while my mother got her teaching degree (since her university studies had been interrupted by WW2). Not exactly a children's play! From that moment on, I was fascinated by live theatre, although I didn't get a chance to see much until I got to university myself.

At Avignon, all I write down is the name of the play, the theatre and the time. All of the other details are in my head.
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #8 on Jul 31, 2010, 7:21pm »		[Quote]

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The next play that I went to see was a very strange experience for personal reasons, because the author of the original work, which is not a play all, is a friend of mine. Originally, I don’t think that it was ever meant to be published, but it was – I have a copy of the book myself: Lettres à Thomas (Letters to Thomas) by Marie Morel. A series of erotic paintings were created in relation to the book, and it must be admitted that the subject matter went far beyond what can be imagined in polite society.

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It was in a former middle school, the Collège d’Annecy, now transformed into a luxury restaurant. The theatre was in a long narrow room overlooking the inner courtyard. In any case, the performance was in line with the author’s words. As the spectators came in, a man was tying up the nude actress on a table with a long rope. Arms and legs were bound, breasts were circled and squeezed into an unnatural shape. Basically, she was hogtied. As “showtime” arrived, the actress was more of a rope creation than a human being.


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Lying on her back, she began to declaim her desire for submission and the unspeakable things that she wanted Thomas to do to her. As the play progressed, she struggled into a sitting position. For some reason, I found myself watching the rivulets of sweat rolling between her breasts, dripping down her belly onto her pubic hair, where it sparkled in the lights. Go figure.

We were dragged through sperm and urine, received descriptions of brutal sodomy and above all the overwhelming desire to accept whatever act Thomas might desire.

No, I do not know if all of this actually happened or if (most of) it remained in the domain of phantasms. We were exhausted and the actress was exhausted by the end of the performance. I confess that I was a bit uncomfortable with what I had just seen, since I know Marie Morel as a sweet and gentle person, but the applause were enthusiastic. The actress obviously just had to sit there during the applause – no running back and forth for curtain calls when you are all tied up! She just nodded and smiled.



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I needed to see something sweet and innocent. Mademoiselle Pi, here I come! I had encountered her “tracting” every day in the streets of Avignon and had discussed her show with another tracter.

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The Attila Théâtre was appropriately located in the back room of a pizzeria. Mademoiselle Pi appears first as the strangely coiffed clown who roams the street, but she transforms herself back and forth many times during the spectacle to show 5 periods in the life of a woman, putting on clothes from a rack on stage with her. She is a 3 year old, a teenager, a businesswoman, a retired woman and a senile grandmother – who talks to the 3 year old on an equal basis as life comes around full circle. Between each sequence, she would pull papers out of a basket as Mademoiselle Pi and do improv, since we had all been asked to write down words when we bought our tickets.

It was delicate and poetic, without sodomy or bodily fluids (just as well since there were many children in the audience).

Time was running out for me in Avignon. The next day would be my last.
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #9 on Aug 1, 2010, 12:50pm »		[Quote]
That's an amazing story about your being caught up at such a young age in the way live theater projects reality. So often, acceptance of theater seems an either/or thing, with many people not giving it a chance because they imagine filmed efforts must be better because of the production facilities. Ironically, even in the minds of those who don't go to the theater, tv or screen actors always garner more respect if they also perform on the live stage. The glory, the miracle of theater is that it works, even for the resistant, even for people who think they prefer elaborate and believable fakery of film.

The experience of watching Lettres à Thomas must have been intensely uncomfortable. On one level, it would have been unavoidable not to think about your friend. On another level, the audience was up close & personal with something that in regular life is not meant to be seen. From your description, it's a fantasy right out of The Story of O, but also it would seem to be more of a statement in the sense of performance art than an actual play. Would you agree?

Yes, Mademoiselle Pi would have been a refreshing palate-cleanser!

Awwww ~~ the last day. What will it bring?
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #10 on Aug 2, 2010, 4:33pm »		[Quote]
I don't believe I'd put Lettres a Thomas very high on my list, being generally more of a Mlle. Pi kind of a person.

Is the male actor expected to produce actual sperm and urine for the good of the production? I'd think that would take a lot out of him, also.
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #11 on Aug 2, 2010, 5:01pm »		[Quote]
There was no male actor, since it was just the actress talking about it.

However, a few years ago I did see a performance where I was frankly afraid of being splashed by nasty things, and there were at least 10 people performing on stage. I had a certain amount of difficulty get an artistic grip on a woman peeing into a bucket, a guy jerking off into a jar, or the various fellations and objects being inserted into orifices.

Nevertheless, I will admit to prurient interest after seeing a veiled description in the program that year and thinking "no way are they really going to do that!"
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #12 on Aug 2, 2010, 6:10pm »		[Quote]
Just a tie-upper then. Probably looks interesting on his resume.

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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #13 on Aug 2, 2010, 6:18pm »		[Quote]
The producers of the messy one a few years ago probably thought they were bravely breaking down bourgeois inhibitions AND being artsy all at the same time.
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #14 on Aug 8, 2010, 4:15pm »		[Quote]
As I already wrote in the Avignon photo report, I was very disappointed by failing to be able to see the spectacle I wanted at Villeneuve, so I was hoping to see something good on my last day in the city.

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I went to see L’Homme Poubelle (The Trash Man) at the Théâtre Laurette after much hesitation. This Laurette place was the “ex-Funambule” where I had had variable experiences over the years. I had both seen a stunning Taiwanese marionette show a few years ago. The Taiwanese troupe has been back to Avignon every year since then with great success, at different theatres. They even speak French now, as I discovered when they tracted me this year. I promise to return to see what they will do in 2011. Another time, I was dragged onto stage for a show aginst my will. At least the performers understood what a mistake they had made, because one of my tormenters stood behind me and hissed in my ear, “Smile…. Smile!!” I had nothing to smile about.

Anyway, the name change of the theatre meant that everything else had changed also.

Perhaps I should have hesitated a bit more, because this monologue did nothing for me. A Czech actor said lots of things about collective amnesia, brainwashing and the loss of identity. We all become Kleenex people in the end, absorbing all of the crap that is sneezed at us.

Thank you, I knew that already.

On top of that, after the applause (one must applaud anyone who has discovered that life can be disappointing), the actor spoke to us of the importance of such a subject, but his main agenda was to make sure we know that he was a Major Artist and personal friend of Vaclev Havel. “Just before the festival started, I was in Prague where I had dinner with my good friend, Vaclev Havel….”

Oh please, spare me the namedropping to validate your uninteresting performance!

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I had not yet seen a classical play this year, and I consider it to be a must, so I went to see Molière’s Le Mariage Forcé (The Forced Marriage) at the Petit Louvre. This is the same theatre where I saw Gelsomina last year, one of the most incredibly poignant spectacles that I have ever see. (It was playing at another theatre this year and I had to refrain from going to see it again – but if it is playing next year, I will return for sure.)

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Anyway, Le Mariage Forcé was delightful, acted as a broad farce with overdone makeup and costumes, just as Molière should be done. Actually, I almost went to see a different production that was playing elsewhere with just 2 actors. This production had 11 actors, and I wanted my money’s worth (10€, big deal)! Of course, now I am very curious to see how the same play can be performed with 11 actors or 2 actors.

I decided to put an end to my theatre going after that show. In past years, I have often gone to “one play too many” out of desperation to fill my last day as completely as possible. More often than not, it has been a horrible choice that has left a bad taste in my mouth.

As for this year, it was good, but not the best. I saw fewer plays than most other years, but that is not a problem. I do feel that I learned new strategies for next year – the best time for me to go, getting to see what I want at Villeneuve, learning to reserve a little better from time to time…

Frankly I can’t wait for next year’s festival. It will run from 7 July to 30 July 2011.
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Re: Avignon Off theatre report 2010
« Reply #15 on Dec 31, 2010, 5:28pm »		[Quote]
I was pleased to received several emails from the little theatres of Avignon today wishing me a happy new year and telling me not to forget our rendezvous next July.
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