Avignon Festival: six pearls of the “off”
► Committed
Angela Davis, a history of the United States
Théâtre des Halles, 22 rue du Roi-René, from July 7 to 31 at 2 p.m. (closed on July 13, 20, 27)
How to decipher in just one hour the commitment of a lifetime? This is the challenge taken up by a shocking trio: Paul Desveaux directing, Faustine Noguès writing and Astrid Bayiha on set. In a combination of jeans and yellow sneakers, the actress plays the famous American activist Angela Davis: anti-racist, feminist and communist activist. Three fights that have succeeded for her are inseparable.
Taking as its starting point the arrest of Angela Davis in 1970 for a murder she had not committed, the play sheds light on the facets of this multiple struggle. Her breeding ground, for example: a childhood spent in a district of Alabama nicknamed “Dynamite Hill”, because of the plastics activated by the Ku Klux Klan… Astrid Bayiha impresses with a game that is both sober and intense, mastering the rhythm of the story , the questioning of the public, the outbursts of anger and the fury of a sharp slam. All at the service of a powerful thought that deeply questions today’s world.
► Musical comedy
Trout
Théâtre du Petit Louvre, 23 rue Saint-Agricol, from July 7 to 30, at 7.20 p.m.
That’s quite a long trip for such a small fish! The five instrumentalists of the Accordzéâm ensemble train Trout of Schubert, and the public with it, on a journey through the world and through time. From Asia to Latin America, via Africa and Corsica, from Irish jig to metal via baroque, slam or pop, the quintet welcomes the famous German composer’s theme to all sauces, or almost. What inventiveness!
We enjoy these cascading surprises – with no less than 60 variations –, embellished with a good dose of humor, a touch of poetry and mad talent. Franck Chenal on drums, Julien Gonzalès on accordion, Raphaël Maillet on violin, Jonathan Malnoury on oboe and Sylvain Courteix on guitar compete in finesse and wackiness for an unusual show that delights the hearing, the eye and the heart. . An invitation to cast off the moorings and indulge in daydreaming. To be enjoyed with the family.
► Intimate
Why are lions so sad?
Théâtre 11-Avignon, 11 boulevard Raspail, from July 7 to 29, at 12 p.m.
Three split souls with twisted paths oscillate on the wire of the unspoken, in a waltz of tormented emotions. In Why are lions so sad?, by Leïla Anis and Karim Hammiche, who also signs the staging, Jean, a journalist, watches over Georges, his dying father, by becoming a home helper after fifteen years of absence. He finds his daughter, nurse, and Paul, neighbor and friend.
Between bursts of voice and modest tenderness, the actors evolve in the subdued light of a sober decor, in raw wood, where memories confront the present. Find the words that say less but say better, mend the wounds dug by time, in the light of a burning reflection around the end of life. The intimacy of wounds is revealed, suffocating under a lead screed tinged with political violence. The distress of caregivers and the meaning of work are questioned in intense asides, where voices mingle with a striking musical rumble.
► Lunar
On the edge of words
Pierre de Lune Theater, 3 rue Roquille, from July 7 to 30 at 1:20 p.m.
How would you mimic cucurbits? The improvisation show by Julien Cottereau, mime and sound artist with well-known talent, and Fane Desrues, actress and singer, will answer this question. The two protagonists reveal their journey with simplicity, through an original story combining poetry and burlesque, songs and noisy mimes.
Accompanied only by a piano, Fane Desrues declares in music her love for life, her favorite places and her love encounters. Julien Cotterau, disguised as an elf, grabs a microphone and mimes with the ingenuity of the words drawn by lot by the public.
The duo opens the doors to new imaginations with innocence and benevolence, as if by magic. Their intimate stories, on edge, gradually arouse admiration. Very quickly, the public escapes and participates internally in this chimerical, almost metaphysical creation, which leaves room for spontaneity and daydreaming.
► Mime
Frantz
La Scala Provence, 3 rue Pourquery-Boisserin, from July 7 to 30 at 5:40 p.m.
A worker in a washing machine company, Frantz leads a monotonous existence until, on Monday, October 28, his father dies. To tell this upheaval which leaves Frantz distraught, Marc Granier, young author and director, offers an ingenious and atypical form of narration, all in sound effects and pantomime. At the center of the stage, Frantz mimes the key moments of his life, playing with the virtuosity of his body and his face to express emotions that no words can describe.
Installed in front of a workbench, three “noise makers” simultaneously tell the same story – Frantz’s moods, the atmospheres, the characters who evolve around him – using a palette of heterogeneous objects and their voice, between mumbling and rumbling. A mishandled plastic bag lets the sea be heard, a pipe a panting breath… Emotion and laughter mingle over the course of a journey from shadow to light, accomplished by a Frantz who hears “stay upright as long as the birds fly”.
► Poetics
Insulin & magnolia
Théâtre du Train bleu, from July 8 to 27, at 2:30 p.m.
This wonderful solo autobiographical scene tells the irruption of the disease in the life of Stanislas Roquette. He is 15 years old and learns that type 1 diabetes has invaded his body. “I can’t heal? »he asks the doctor in a panic. “No, but research is progressing. And then Sharon Stone is also diabetic…”he replies.
Armed with these meager consolations, he melts into his new daily life between injections, spikes in blood sugar, sweats and tremors. Until he meets Fleur. Solar and free, the teenager, who has forged a language of her own, opens the doors of poetry and fantasy to her.
She replaces thank you with magnolia, goodbye with Peloponnese, summons Mallarmé, Baudelaire or Verlaine, and teaches him to transcend life to “see the other reality”. This loving friendship, saving for the young man, will awaken him to his vocation, the theater as a living poetic art.