a last lap for Olivier Py
The director and playwright Olivier Py, at the head of the Festival d’Avignon since 2013, is coming to the end of his mandate with this 76th edition. The latter will present two shows there to conclude his mandate as it should.
After eight years of good and loyal service, Olivier Py is preparing to hand over the keys to the Festival d’Avignon to Portuguese director Tiago Rodrigues, who opened the last edition of the Festival, in the Cour d’honneur of the Palais des Papes, with an adaptation of The Cherry Orchard of Chekhov (Isabelle Huppert embodied Lioubov there), after having triumphed in Avignon twice – in 2015 with his version ofAntony and Cleopatra of william shakespeare then in 2017 with Sopro, tribute to a blower from the Dona Maria II National Theater in Lisbon, of which Rodrigues is now the ex-director. The Portuguese director assumes his duties during the 2023 edition of the festival. It is the first time that a foreign artist will assume this function since the creation of the festival in 1947 by the theater man Jean Vilar (1912-1971).
Py’s Odyssey
Olivier Py had been appointed head of the Avignon festival in 2013 and had taken up his post for the 2014 edition, nearly thirty years after his first visit to the City of the Popes – it was in 1985, he had to barely 20 years old and he was playing The foam of the days in the “Off” Festival. His brilliance in the “In”, as a director, will occur in 1995 with The servant, a 24-hour river show made up of five plays interspersed with five “dramaules”, which made a strong impression. He will return to present, among other things, The face of Orpheus in 1997, Winners in 2005 or even Orlando or impatience in 2014 for his first year at the head of the event.
For his last year in office, Olivier Py, who also ensures that this 76th Festival d’Avignon will not be “ neither summary nor commemorative », will present two of his creations: on the last day of the festival, Olivier Py will once again endorse the panoply of Miss Knife, alter ego son of cabaret, joined by Ukrainian punk cabaret group Dakh Daughters and Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo, all accompanied by the Orchester national Avignon-Provence. Even more symbolic, Olivier Py will present during the festival An exalted youth, ten-hour theatrical marathon where the director reappropriates the figure of Harlequin in an ultimate tribute to youth, in the very place – the gymnasium of the Lycée Aubanel – where the latter had presented The servant in 1995. The circle is complete.