Avignon Festival forges ahead, despite virus restrictions
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Saturday, December 7, 2024


Avignon Festival forges ahead, despite virus restrictions
This photograph taken on July 10, 2021 shows French actor Marc Arnaud posing during the Avignon Theater Festival in Avignon, southern France. A Muslim converted to Catholicism, a theater student under the influence of her teacher, a father-to-be in a sperm collection room: in Avignon, one-man shows that tell the story of life are a hit. Nicolas TUCAT / AFP.

by Laura Cappelle



AVIGNON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- It sounds like a virologist’s nightmare: 1,070 theater productions; 116 venues, most of them within Avignon’s cramped medieval center; and everywhere, festivalgoers sitting shoulder to shoulder in indoor spaces.

Yet the Fringe offering at this summer’s Avignon Festival — which runs parallel to the main event, and is known as “le Off” — has forged ahead, even as the more contagious delta variant of the coronavirus became the dominant strain in France.

Is it problematic to enjoy excellent performances under the circumstances? With the rituals of Avignon, including unmasked performers handing out publicity flyers in the street, came a sense of normalcy. Still, a sneaky sense of guilt permeated conversations with theatergoers — not least when new restrictions were announced, shortly after the Avignon Festival began.

Last week, the French government decreed that a “health pass” — a QR code proving full vaccination or a negative coronavirus test result — would be required from July 21 for all venues with over 50 seats. Restaurants, bars and trains will follow from Aug. 1. (The health pass requirement previously applied only to events with more than 1,000 audience members.)

Frustration was palpable in Avignon in the days before the rule came into force. While roughly half of Fringe venues are small enough to skirt it, some companies opted to leave early, and bigger shows reported ticket returns and a drop in bookings. Last weekend, as widespread demonstrations against the policy swept France, protesters filled Avignon’s biggest avenue, shouting “Liberté!” (“Freedom!”)

While the Avignon Festival’s official lineup (“le In,” in local parlance) went from bleak to bleaker in its themes, Fringe fare at least offered some respite from pandemic worries, since comedy has always been a prominent part of this less highbrow portion of the festival.

Two original one-man shows, by Mehdi-Emmanuel Djaadi and Marc Arnaud, combine jokes and impressions with explorations of deep-seated inner conflicts. Djaadi’s “Coming Out,” especially, is an exercise in stereotype busting. The coming out in question is religious: The show recounts the 34-year-old comedian’s conversion from Islam to Catholicism.

Support for his choice was scarce, as Djaadi tells it at the aptly named Théâtre des Corps Saints (Theater of the Holy Bodies). His family, of Algerian descent, felt he was turning his back on them; a priest explained that he didn’t want any trouble; in artistic circles, many were ill at ease with what they saw as the Catholic Church’s homophobia and conservatism.

Yet instead of expressing the resentment he might have felt, Djaadi looks back on his journey, from teenage rebellion and drug dealing to a Catholic wedding, with amused affection. He points to contradictions on both sides, and France’s churchgoers come in for pointed satire, too.




In “The Metamorphosis of Storks,” Arnaud focuses on a much shorter stretch of time. He and his wife went through the process of in vitro fertilization, and we meet Arnaud as he is about to donate a sperm sample — a process that brings up far more feelings than he expected.

As he stalls impatient hospital staff, his monologue covers his sexual education, his attempts at therapy and anxiety about parenthood. It’s a brisk, honest reckoning with the travails of masculinity, which packed the Théâtre du Train Bleu to the rafters (before the health pass requirement was implemented).

Not that Avignon audiences were turned off by darker shows. At Artéphile, one of the few Fringe venues to also function as a year-round cultural space, director Blandine Pélissier offered a stark and convincing production, “Iphigenia in Splott.”

Welsh playwright Gary Owen is relatively unknown in France, but his 2015 reworking of the Iphigenia myth — translated by Pélissier and Kelly Rivière — should prompt curiosity about his work. Here, the sacrificial victim is Effie, from the Cardiff district of Splott, a blaze of raging energy who becomes unexpectedly pregnant. This 90-minute monologue convincingly attributes the lack of support she encounters to social and medical service cuts, and actress Morgane Peters takes the role from hard-edge anger to pain with poignant ease.

Productions with larger casts were a bigger challenge this year, given that a positive coronavirus test among the company was enough to call a show off, and director and actress Julie Timmerman downsized her show “A Democrat” as a result. Timmerman retooled this excellent production about Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Freud known as “the father of public relations,” for just two actors (Mathieu Desfemmes and herself). The result is adroitly written and witty, a worthy look at the dangers of Bernays’ techniques when they’re used for propaganda purposes.

While the Avignon Festival’s official, curated lineup involves far fewer productions than the Fringe, it was hit with a handful of coronavirus-related cancellations. The artistic teams of two choreographers, Dada Masilo and Dimitris Papaioannou, were unable to travel to Avignon, while Eva Doumbia’s “Autophagies” saw its run interrupted when members of the cast and crew had to go into isolation after coming into contact with an infected person.

Two European productions that went ahead make a lasting impression. Emma Dante, of Italy, choreographs as much as she directs, and in “Misericordia,” theater becomes dance and vice versa. In it, three women raise a child, Arturo, who is described as mentally disabled and whose mother was a victim of domestic violence. Together, they form a bickering, complex family. The dancer Simone Zambelli not only captures Arturo’s twitching, disjointed body, he spins his physical vulnerability and moments of joy into poetry, knotting himself into expressive shapes.

Avignon also hosted the stage version of “Pieces of a Woman.” Before it became a film starring Vanessa Kirby last year, playwright Kata Weber and director Kornel Mundruczo imagined it for the TR Warszawa playhouse in Warsaw, Poland, and the Polish cast delivered a gut punch in Avignon at the Lycée Théodore Aubanel.

The play starts with the same lengthy labor scene as the film, but it covers less narrative ground after the central couple’s baby is stillborn. Whereas the screen version details the trial of a midwife who attended to the birth, this is only hinted at as a possibility onstage, and Maja, who lost her child, refuses to go through with it. Instead, the characters’ grief plays out over a long family dinner at the home of Maja’s mother.

The result requires more patience on viewers’ part, but rewards it with a fully formed portrait of a family adrift. In that sense, the stage version of “Pieces of a Woman” completes Weber and Mundruczo’s puzzle: Let’s hope Avignon won’t be its only international stop.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.










Today's News

July 24, 2021

A painting or an NFT of it: Which will be more valuable?

Jewish burial records among items seized by U.S. authorities

Ed Atkins and his mum are starring in a museum show

Frist Art Museum opens major Kara Walker exhibition

Splash of colour: UK beach huts brighten pandemic gloom

Suzanne Cotter appointed new Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

White House on defensive over Hunter Biden art sales

Salzburg festival hall, a world temple in the sound of music

Vladimir Menshov, surprise Russian Oscar winner, dies at 81

Fans honour Amy Winehouse in London decade after her death

Meadows Museum announces appointment of two curatorial fellows

Maureen Paley opens a solo exhibition of works by Sarah Jones

Belvedere 21 presents 'Lois Weinberger: Basics'

Rare Campaign sofa comes up for auction at Bellmans

'En Plein Air Reloaded: Green Fuse' opens at Black & White Gallery / Project Space

Transformed Asian Art Museum unveils new pavilion with teamLab: Continuity

Nobel Prize awarded to immunogeneticist George Snell in 1980 to be auctioned

Avignon Festival forges ahead, despite virus restrictions

Romania mining town Rosia Montana eyes UNESCO restart

The music scene in this Brooklyn neighborhood is here to stay

At Salzburg, Don Giovanni gets no pleasure from seducing

A violinist on how to empower Asian musicians

Oscar Murillo unveils his global project Frequencies at his former school in Hackney

Great Barrier Reef avoids UNESCO 'in danger' listing

How to Improve Your Creative Skills?

Selecting The Best Bathroom Accessories

How Do You Pick The Best Windows For Your Home?

Is There A Chance I Could Lose My Job For A DUI?

If I've Been In A Vehicle Accident, Do I Need A Lawyer?

What Are The Costs Involved In Window Installation?

How Do I Go About Finding The Right Window/Door Materials?

Tips to Select the Perfect Gift For a Picky Individual




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Houston Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง
Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful