Day 47. Femme Non-Rééducable (2015 & 2016)

Femme Non-Rééducable (2015 & 2016)

English Title

     Woman Who Cannot be Re-educated/Rehabilitated

Director

     Maïa Sandoz

Playwright

     Stefano Massini

Year

     12 July 2015, 8.30pm, Festival Contre Courant, Avignon

     5 March 2016, 4pm, Théâtre des Quartiers d'Ivry, Paris. (Antonin Artaud Auditorium)

Form

     Play reading

Duration

     1h

Production details

     Theatre L’Argument

     Mise en scène: 
            Maïa Sandoz

     Avec

            Adèle Haenel
            Élisa Boureau
            Aymeric Demarigny

            Paul Moulin

     Création lumière: 
           Bruno Brinas

     Musique: 
           Christophe Danvin

     Scénographie et costumes: 
           Maïa Sandoz & Catherine Cosme

Synopsis

“In 2005 Vladislav Surkov, the very powerful secretary to Vladimir Putin signs a circular in which he notes that the enemies of the state divide in two categories: the enemies with which we can reason and those with whom we cannot.

Journalist Anna Politovskaïa was certainly of these.

Femme Non-Rééducable is a testimony on the itinerary of this "ordinary" woman who never ceased to denounce the atrocities of the camps and Chechen by describing objective facts and who paid for it with her life.”

Translated from Festival Contre Courant 2015 program

From the Director, Maïa Sandoz

“I read this piece one night of insomnia, I found it immediately powerful: the subject which she broached, but especially by the proposal of theatre which was made to me, suddenly, to me, in particular, in the middle of the night...

I found my obsessive (infinite) quest for truth, freedom and these questions of time, of relation to reality which already crosses my previous shows.

In his play, Massini deploys a radical dramaturgy. Each sequence carries a name: The Ambush, Chechnya, Human Fagot, Grozny's Glock, punch in the mouth, tired. Fragments of memory, therefore. Notes for the future, the text of Massini is a retrospective journey, a memory…a memory.

That of Anna. Not our memory for her, but hers for us. Her memory is the main character 
in the play. It looks like her: precise, rushed, unvarnished, desperately ironic, orderly.

But like all memories, it has its flaws, its accidents, it breaks up with a punch in the face, big and small shocks, physical, psychological, ethical traumas.

There will therefore be several voices, two actors and two actresses taking charge 
collectively the memory of Anna.

Each sequence imposes its own rhythm, its own style, its own musicality, his own address. In turn, there are stories, dreams, hallucinations, dialogues the very interior of the story, bringing out characters, then embodying actors of the conflict, giving them a name and a face…

There will be special treatment for each of them. Different levels of incarnation, 
different "inner shows". A very rich variation for the four performers. Because the 
memory involved is not only semantic (the circumstances geopolitics of the Chechen conflict) it is also perceptual… We will put in place, with Christophe Danvin a sound device that will support these perceptions (memories of perceptions) of places, sounds, music evoked in the play.

The light, frontal device sets up a press conference table, 4 chairs and 4 microphones. Obviously, the actors have a few things to say and are ready to answer questions. It’s a starting premise, evolving.

Massini's purpose is universal because through the memory of this courageous and 
determined woman, he lets us understand the brutal mechanism of human barbarities. 
It is not a theater of denunciation, it is not a manifesto. The play takes on the 
appearance of documentary theater, but Massini's poetry emerges through the rocking of 
time spaces that punctuate the story. It is the words, the words that make spaces emerge 
and go back in time.

Anna Politkovskaia limited herself to telling the facts, crudely naming barbarism. With great delicacy and rigour Massini personifies his memory. We will try to rock the perception of the reality of the spectators ... by keeping in mind this delicacy and this barbarism.

I have a great fascination for the ethical monsters that sometimes are women and men and a great aversion to tyrannies, whatever they are.

Finally, a woman who cannot be rehabilitated is essential because she brings humanity 
back there where we tend to forget that it exists…

…at the heart of the fight.”

Maïa Sandoz

(translation)

Adèle’s role

     Reading from the writings of and interviews with the journalist Anna Politovskaïa. (Please tell me if you know more so that I can improve this page. D)

About the play

“Too distant or too long, there are wars that interest no one.

In Grozny, the war is officially over, but behind the machine guns and tanks, Russia is still there. The only Russian journalist to have covered the war in Chechnya, Anna Politkovskaya, who cannot be re-educated, the title given to her by the Russian general staff, is not here to judge. The facts speak for themselves. Regularly threatened, she constantly returns to the field, reporting the words of those who testify at the risk of their lives and hers.

In October 2006, Anna Politkovskaïa was found murdered in the stairwell of her Moscow building.

The play is a succession of sequences written from notes, interviews, correspondence, articles. Written with respect, dread and lucidity on two camps who are tearing each other apart. Devastated Grozny, the insane happiness of having running water, waking up in a hospital bed after an attempted poisoning…

Stefano Massini makes Anna's voice heard and imposes a poetic and radical language, an emotional weapon offensive.”

Translated from the programme of Theatre L’Argument, 2016

"I’m just telling the facts. The facts: as they happen, as they are. It may seem the simplest thing here, it is the most difficult. And it costs a crazy price. What price? The price you pay when you no longer practice a trade, but you go to war. You fight. You feel like a fighter.”

Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was an icon of the Russian independent press. She went regularly to the combat zones in Chechnya and to refugee camps in Dagestan, then in Ingushetia, denouncing the barbarity of the Russian army and the inhuman conditions of the populations victims of this war. Her field investigations and her unclassifiable status in a rather apathetic Russian press, practicing self-censorship, made her, during her lifetime, a recognized and acclaimed journalist abroad. In 2006, she was assassinated in Moscow. In the form of a newspaper, Stefano Massini recounts, without pathos, the words of the journalist. He uses notes, interviews, letters. We are reading it as a press conference, because it is urgent to remember the courage of this woman and her fight for freedom of expression.

Maïa Sandoz
Translated from the Season Guide for the Theatre d'Ivry

Notes

This is another play by Theatre de L'Argument, the theatre troupe that Adèle is a member of, and she is again directed by her friend Maïa Sandoz. This play is set up like a press conference, with the four actors seated at a long table draped in a white cloth and facing the audience; each with a microphone and water bottle.

The play was performed at the summer festival Festival Contre Courant, on a river island at Avignon and again the following year at Theatre Montfort in Paris, with the same performers.

Theatre L'Argument was an associate artist of the Festival Contre Courant in Avignon in 2015. The festival is held on the Ile de la Barthelasse, just opposite Avignon, where it is an almost free festival, which was born in the wake of the education movement, and is held every year. The festival, supported by the works council for gas and electricity, welcomes 4,000 people every year. The festival is very family oriented, with lounge chairs inviting you to relax on the grass and there is a little tavern there that contrasts with the busy-ness of the city.

I am loving learning about Theatre de l'Argument. It looks like such a fabulous group of people who are doing amazing theatre works to rave reviews, as well as being politically active and into sustainability. So much to love about them! 

[When I get to Paris after this current crisis is over (written 1 July 2020, as parts of my city are being put back into hard lockdown) I will be checking out what they are performing. D]

Image from the performance at Festival Contre Courant, July 2015

Aymeric Demarigny, Adèle Haenel, Élisa Boureau, et Paul Moulin (L to R)
at the Contre Courant Festival 12 July 2015

Images from the performance at Théatre des Quartiers d'Ivry, 5 March 2016

Aymeric Demarigny, Adèle Haenel, Élisa Boureau et Paul Moulin, with director Maia Sandoz.

Paul Moulin, Adèle Haenel, et Élisa Boureau (L to R)

Élisa Boureau, Paul Moulin et Aymeric Demarigny (L to R)

Adèle Haenel et Élisa Boureau

Chatting with the audience after the performance

Part of an interview at the Festival Contre Courant 2015

(it is auto translated, so it mucks up gender & probably other things too...it is only part of the interview as I am not a subscriber. This article also mentions the beer run that was included in yesterday's event Baby Comme Bach)

Day 46. Baby Comme Bach (2015)

Baby Comme Bach (Pizza Cabaret) (2015)

English Title

     Baby like Bach (Pizza Cabaret)

Director

     Paul Moulin

Conception

     Paul Moulin

Year

     2015

• Baby Comme Bach No. 1 July 11 2015 (1815h) Contre Courant 2015 Festival
• Baby Comme Bach No. 2 July 13 2015 (1815h) Contre Courant 2015 Festival
• Baby Comme Bach No. 3 July 17 2015 (2030h) Contre Courant 2015 Festival
• also Open Rehearsal on June 20 2015 at La Général, Paris

[In 2019 there was a revival of show at the Montfort Theatre, Paris, which was named “Bach is Back Baby”. I do not know if Adèle was part of the 2019 event.]

Form

     A pizza cabaret event.

About the production

Mise en scène: 
            Paul Moulin

with

            Maïa Sandoz

            Christophe Danvin

            Ivanne Barberis

            Sidonie Han

            Aymeric Demarigny

            Adèle Haenel

            Serge Biavan

            Aurélie Verillon & guests

Synopsis

     "Baby Comme Bach is a cabaret, a series of ambiguous songs, delicious pizzas, a little freshness before the rush of Parisian summer, a musical and taste show…"

“Here is a pizza caravan held by two brothers in which a duo will play guitarist-singer.

The duo tries to make a hit with a hit, a hit with a failed hit, to adapt a song Spanish in English, or imagine what could Jane Birkin do on a song by Johnny.

And why not rap the Stones or go out instruments that do not exist, and finally ring all the pans.”

From the Festival Contre Courant program

“A theater troupe has just been deprogrammed from the Avignon festival, their proposal for musical creation around the "search for fertility" by Antonin Artaud disturbs. They are picked up in extremis by the owner of a pizzeria which imposes Hervé Vilar on them as the only possible repertoire. “Capri C'est finished” as the only horizon….

We suppose, when we start a creation that everything has already been done, everything has already been said, written. So why tap into this infinite repertoire? To use the song as raw material. It's a recreation, it's fun: a real relaxation of intelligence.”

Baby like Bach is an encompassing device, a real aperitif, a music box.

Adèle’s role

     Performer & drinks specialist. (Any more information would be welcome!)

Duration

     1h

Notes

     Festival Contre Courant (Against the Current Festival) is a festival held on the Ile de la Barthelasse, which is an island in the river at Avignon, France. It is the biggest river-island in France. In 2015 Théâtre de l’Argument was an associate artist of the Festival Contre Courant and they presented eight performance in seven days of the festival. An exhausting schedule, with the whole crew in everything! Crazy summer fun!

This looks like a fabulously fun event—a summer festival, talented performers, and good food & drink. Lots to love!

Images from the event

Adèle serving at the bar with Paul

Adèle collects the beer kegs for the event.
This image sums up the impression that I have gained about Adèle
after quite a lot of reading about her career:
She works hard for her art and is always testing her limits,
she is a team player & a good friend, and she is not a princess.
She gets in and does the work with the team.

The team makes pizzas AND performs!
Paul Moulin, Sidonie Han, Aymeric Demarigny & Ivanne Barberis (L to R),

Maia Sandoz on stage with Christophe Danvin

Aurélie Verillon serving up the pizza

Christophe Danvin

Great looking pizzas

The menu

Some information about the show

That's "Singing tour' not 'singing tower'—don;'t you love auto-translate!!

The Open rehearsal event

Poster for the open rehearsal before the Festival Contre Courant performance
(20 June 2015)

Open rehearsal before the festival performance.

Day 45. Antoine Vitez, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre-Aimé Touchard (2012)

Antoine Vitez, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre-Aimé Touchard: Play Reading (2012)

Director

     Arthur Nauzyciel

Playwright

     Antoine Vitez, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre-Aimé Touchard

Year

     2012: Wednesday November 21, 2012 8:30 p.m.

Form

     Play reading

Staged

     CDN Workshop

Synopsis

     Vitez, Barrault, Touchard… These names which were given to the theaters of the Orleans Theater, at the time when it was still called Carré Saint Vincent, are the names of three major figures of public theater in France. Directors who have marked their time, we want you to (re) discover their voices, their visions, their stories, through their texts which will be read by Ariane Ascaride, Marie-Sophie Ferdane (from the Comédie-Française) and Adèle Haenel.

Adèle’s role

     Not known.

Notes

      This is another collaboration of Adèle with director Arthur Nauzyciel, who directed Adèle in La Mouette at the Avignon Festival in 2012, and then on tour. Arthur Nauzyciel is also the director of the CDN where this play reading was performed, and Adèle continued to work with Arthur over the next few years.
     5 euro entry. Apart from that, I haven’t been able to find any information, photos or video.

Images

Day 44. NBA & Une Antigone (2014)

NBA & Une Antigone (2014)

English Title

NBA

An Antigone

Director

     Arthur Nauzyciel

Year

      2014

• 1 April 2014 National Dramatic Center, Orléans (CDN); 7pm; Salle Vitez. Free entry.
• 2 April 2014 Theater Ouvert, Paris. 8pm

Form

       Play reading

Duration

       2h

NBA

Playwright

       Denis Lachaud

Synopsis: NBA

       N, B and A cross their voices. Three stories intermingle and become one between Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and Europe.

Adèle’s role: NBA

      B

Une Antigone

Playwright: Antigone

       Marie Darrieussecq

Synopsis: Antigone

       “With this Antigone I wanted restore to Sophocles a language which is neither that of Anouilh* nor that of scholars, just a simple ‘everyday’ language, to tell a universal story and that I also felt like mine: the sister who buries her brother against the law of the king. An adaptation that is very close to the text original, but a bit ‘Dehellenized’: fewer gods and more justice, perhaps.”

Marie Darrieussecq

*Explainer: Jean Anouilh was a French playwright living in German-occupied France during World War II. He wrote Antigone in 1942, though the play was originally censored due to its anti-authority message. The play was not staged in Paris until 1944, shortly before Paris' liberation.

Adèle’s role: Antigone

     Ismène, Antigone’s sister.

Production

      Actors: 
          Audrey Bonnet
          Pascal Cervo
          Xavier Gallais
          Adèle Haenel
          Hugues Quester
          Dominique Reymond

     Sound Creation:
          Xavier Jacquot

Notes

• Adèle was performing in Trois Hommes Verts (Three Green Men, 2014) at around the same time that this play reading took place—there was a two week break between when Trois Hommes Verts was staged at the Le Théâtre de Gennevilliers (March 8-21, 2014) and its season at Centre Pompidou (April 25-27, 2014). 

Adèle's previous professional connections with fellow performers

• Actor Pascal Cervo, who performed the role of the messenger Hémon in Une Antigone, was a fellow Green Man in Trois Hommes Verts (2014).
• Actor Xavier Gallais, who read the part of the guard Tirésais in Antigone in this play reading appeared as Treplev in La Mouette (2012) with Adèle.
• Actress Audrey Bonnet appeared with Adèle in Un Peuple Son Roi (2018).
• Actress Dominique Reymond played Arkadina in La Mouette (2012) and also appeared in Adèle's first film, Les Diables (2002), as La Directrice.

• Adèle was directed by Arthur Nauzyciel in her first venture onto the professional stage, in La Mouette at the Avignon Festival in 2012. This production then toured from late September 2012 until the end of April 2013.This production had its final performance (a reunion & farewell for the cast) as La Mouette: Unplugged in January 2014, not long before these play readings took place. Adèle’s work in theatre has been characterised by working with people she has worked with before, her main theatre collaborators being Theatre L’Argument (where she is a member if the troupe) and also with Arthur Nauzyciel.

Arthur Nauzyciel, who directed this play reading,  was the director of the Centre Dramatique National Orléans/Loiret/Centre (CDN of Orléans), where the play reading was staged on 1 April 2014. The two play readings that he directed, NBA and Une Antigone, were a way to present to the public a work from each of Marie Darrieussecq and Denis Lachaud, who were writers associated with the CDN, where he was the director at that time. The play reading he directed was undertaken by actors who had previous associations with the CDN, including Dominique Reymond, Marie-Sophie Ferdane, Adèle Haenel, and Xavier Gallais.

An interview with playwright Marie Darrieussecq in 2018

“In 2009, the writer created an adaptation of the tragedy of Sophocles. Here she reveals the intimate thread that connects her to the room.

In 2009 I adapted the Sophocles Antigone in my own way , a bit like I had adapted Ovid's letters of exile. It was during a seminar at the École normale supérieure, where I tried to understand this female figure, so much stronger than the one Anouilh had imagined. The text gave rise to a reading staged by Arthur Nauzyciel, with Adèle Haenel in the role of Antigone. Here is an excerpt from scene XIV.

ANTIGONE

- these funeral honors

if I had kids

if my husband was there

to rot on the ground

I wouldn't have taken it on my shoulders

against the city

Against law

why I did that

understand me

a dead husband

we remarry

we have other children

but my father and my mother

are dead

and I will never have another brother

what I had to do was there

and Creon thinks I'm guilty”

translated from https://www.nouveau-magazine-litteraire.com/le-geste-dune-s%C2%8CurFebruary 2018

[Note: According to the information about the play reading, Adèle performed the role of Ismene, Antigone’s sister, not Antigone, as the playwright recalls in this interview.]