Avignon Festival 2022: follow the guide
The Swan Song by Olivier Py…
Last Festival d’Avignon programmed by Olivier Py who directed it since 2013. He presents “Ma jeunesse exaltée” there. (Aubanel high school gymnasium, 2 p.m., from July 8 to 15), ” a transmission part », « a handover », which lasts ten hours! It was played where, twenty-seven years ago, “la Servant” had been played, the show that launched it and which lasted twenty-four hours. The same Olivier Py, for thirty years, wears to sing the dresses of Miss Knife, his female alter ego. Transvestism is no longer scandalous: “Today, it is with family that we come to see Miss Knife and that gives me a lot of joy. » To close her last festival, Miss Knife will give a unique recital at the Opéra Grand Avignon on July 26, in the company of the Dakh Daughters group and the Beninese Angélique Kidjo.
… and Tiago Rodrigues already there
Tiago Rodrigues will become the new director of the Festival d’Avignon as soon as it is over. The festival-goers had discovered him with “António e Cleópatra” in 2015, then with “Sopro” in 2017, and he had climbed last summer in the Cour d’Honneur “la Cerisaie”, by Chekhov, with Isabelle Huppert. This year, it is as an author that he will be present. The director Anne Théron built her show from a text by him: “Iphigénie” (Opera Grand Avignon, from July 7 to 13).
The sequel after the ad
Tiago Rodrigues will take on the dreams of the Festival d’Avignon in 2022
Serebrennikov opening
The show that takes place on the first evening in the Cour d’Honneur of the Palais des Papes opens the festival. This honor belongs to the Russian Kirill Serebrennikov, whose film “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” already opened the last Cannes Film Festival. It presents an adaptation of Chekhov’s fantastic short story, “The Black Monk”. (Court of Honor of the Palais des Papes, from July 7 to 15), performed in German, English and Russian, but with French and English surtitles. The presence of this protester, son of a father of Jewish origin and a Ukrainian mother, to whom his positions in favor of democracy or LGBT have earned many disputes with the Russian authorities, is a symbol .
Kirill Serebrennikov, Russian filmmaker protester: “Putin got the wrong film”
Eternal Shakespeare
Jean Vilar made fun of festival programmers who, for lack of ideas, decide to perform a Shakespeare play. This did not prevent him from mounting “The Tragedy of King Richard II”, “Henry IV”, “Macbeth” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. There is no escaping the Great Testament. This summer, his followers will be entitled to “Richard II” edited by Christophe Rauck (Aubanel high school gymnasium, from July 20 to 26). The new director of the Nanterre-Amandiers Theater is familiar with the great Shakespearean frescoes. In the distribution, Micha Lescot and Cécile Garcia-Fogel. Another Shakespeare, but in Italian with French surtitles, “la Tempesta” (“the Storm”), directed by the director of the TeatroPersona company, Alessandro Serra (Opera Grand Avignon, July 17 to 23).
READ ALSO > Theater: Micha Lescot, survivor actor
Tales for children
Some festival-goers take their children to Avignon, two shows are intended for them. Igor Mendjisky offers a free adaptation of the Grimm Brothers’ tale in which two starving children, lost in the forest, salivate in front of the gingerbread house of a cannibalistic witch (“Gretel, Hansel and the others”, Chapel of the White Penitents, from July 8 to 11, from 7 years old). In the same place, another children’s tale, “Little Red Riding Hood”, but the Das Plateau company preferred to draw inspiration from the Grimm brothers’ version, which is more optimistic than Perrault’s. Here the wolf devours the grandmother but, with the help of a hunter, the little girl manages to free her. (From July 15 to 18, from 4 years old).
The sequel after the ad
Montreuil Youth Fair: 5 books we devoured
Thirteen hours: who says better?
Aside from “Ma jeunesse exaltée” by Olivier Py, most of the festival shows have reasonable durations. An exception: the complete “Nest of ashes”, by Simon Falguières, which should last thirteen hours, intermission included (La Fabrica, from July 9 to 16). “A challenge that only a few intrepid people still dream of: a river show”, announces the program. The text is published by Actes Sud Papiers.
Maria Casarès and Gérard Philipe would be 100 years old
At the Maison Jean Vilar, two readings around the 100e anniversary of the birth, in 1922, of Gérard Philipe and Maria Casarès. The first, based on letters, press clippings, archives and extracts from shows, revolves around his relationship with Maria Casarès, who was his partner in the TNP troupe. (July 11 at 11 a.m., free admission). Second reading, the letters exchanged between Jean Vilar and Gérard Philipe. Note that it is his daughter, Anne-Marie Philipe, who will retrace with Stanislas Nordey the magnificent friendship of two great artists and citizens. (July 21, at 11 a.m., free entry). And the day before, July 20, at 6 p.m., will be presented at the Utopia cinema in Avignon, “Gérard Philipe, the last winter of the Cid”, the film by Patrick Jeudy based on the novel by Jérôme Garcin (Folio), which was in the official selection of Cannes Classics at the last Cannes Film Festival.
Finally, still at Maison Vilar, an exhibition is organized to compare the destinies of Maria Casarès and Gérard Philipe: “Infinitely, Maria Casarès, Gérard Philipe – an evocation” (Info. : maisonjeanvilar.org)
When Agnès Varda spoke to us about photos and theatre…
Two novelists at the festival
Enjoy -50% the first year
by subscribing to L’Obs with Google
By applying this promotional subscription path, you authorize the deposit of an analysis cookie by Google.
“ In this garden we loved” (Grasset), by Pascal Quignard, adapted by actress and director Marie Vialle. The story of a pastor who, in despair over the death of his wife, undertakes to write down everything he hears in his garden, the songs of the birds, the whispers of the rain, but rejects his daughter, guilty of too apparent to the disappeared. (Cloître des Célestins, from July 9 to 16). For her part, Elise Vigier has teamed up with the novelist Agnès Desarthe to put together an original text inspired by the “Fantastic News” by the Franco-Cuban Anaïs Nin. (Théâtre Benoît XII, from July 9 to 16).
The sequel after the ad
The Thoughts of Pascal (Quignard)
Published in “L’OBS” of June 30, 2022.