The Overseas at the Avignon Theater Festival 2022 edition, start!
Like every year, Overseas companies try to take advantage of this big stage which represents the Avignon Theater Festival which begins this Thursday, July 7th. It is not only a question of shining with the public during this month of July but also of building tours for the coming months and enriching the programs of theaters outside their natural areas. Small non-exhaustive tour of what we can see.
This is the role and the mission it has given itself since 1997 and it is not this 2022 edition that will depart from the rule: the Chapel of the Incarnate Word will host the bulk of the productions of overseas companies that have been able to travel and reimburses enough support and funding to cover the cost.
The Overseas Theater in Avignon, the TOMA, hosted by La Chapelle presents no less than a dozen plays and readings as well as a whole series of conferences or documentaries, always in partnership with the Institut du Tout World.
“The day my father killed me”
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On the entertainment side, no common theme for this 25th edition of TOMA but no doubt, after the last particularly difficult years due to the pandemic, a tone perhaps a little more serious, at least more serious in the selection of shows .
There is only the adaptation in Reunionese Creole of the classic comedy by Marivaux, The game of love and chance (who becomes : Kan Lamour ek lo Azar i zoué avek) that can be clearly identified as a direct appeal to laughter or even the promise of Pinocchio 21 to take us back to our childhood.
“Pinochio 21”
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Moreover, is it because we have been particularly – and for too long – prevented from moving, from moving around that the TOMA shows make singular use this year of dance, choreography, the expression of the bodies on stage? ?
“Spectrum”
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Coming from Mayotte, this is the case of Whispers of the Decades by Djodjo Kazadi; Venus of the Antilles, the show Spectrum by David Milome or even From Venus to Miriam, in step with my song by Chantal Loïal also report speech in bodily expression.
“From Venus to Myriam”
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There will also be a lot of talk about exiles, departures and returns, belonging and identity of course (strong themes of our Overseas Territories, their histories and their realities) whether in the play by and with Veronique Kanor, I’m not from here, I’m here, Raphael’s Islands by Alexandra Déglise or, in part, The day my father killed me by Magali Solignat and Charlotte Boimare).
Note also the effort of Reunion Island which, in addition to TOMA, will be presented in large numbers at this Festival. In total, nine companies from the department offered themselves, granted the opportunity to go to Avignon, to finance themselves, to support each other in order to program shows in some rooms of the OFF. Either throughout the month or by whetting appetites with a few performances as a presentation to the public and programmers.
“Heavy hearts do not cross rice fields”
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Among these shows from the Indian Ocean to follow, proposals as varied as: And my heart in all this?, Oedipus etc., Terminus we Heavy hearts don’t cross paddy fields. An initiative to which we will return when reporting on this 56th Festival OFF d’Avignon on the overseas side.
“Terminus”
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We invite you on the Portal to see two pieces from the program of the Chapel and we will follow a large part of the shows offered by the TOMA which is part of the OFF part of the Festival d’Avignon (1500 pieces offered in the OFF this (No or few shows made in Overseas in the IN part but a few comedians to follow.)
Avignon Festival OFF or IN, Overseas Theater in Avignon (TOMA) : kick off of the festivities tomorrow, Thursday July 7! Long live the overseas theater!