TIMETABLES : At 9pm - PLACE : Departure Place Saint André - Grenoble
PRICES : Free
The parade-show closing the Rencontres has again evolved for this 19th edition, continuing the transformation made in previous years. The part "show" taking a place more and more important compared to the part "parade".
An upstream organization
This closing
show has been prepared all year long. Mariagiovanna
Rosati-Hansen, director of the Accademia Internazionale dell'Attore in Rome, to
whom Créarc had entrusted the direction, came to Grenoble from March 15 to 18,
2007. She worked with Fernand Garnier and Renée Samson in the
adaptation of Sophocles' text on which it would be based : Antigone. The
synopsis was then translated by the Créarc team in Italian, French and English
and distributed to directors, work groups leaders.
Accompanied
by Fernand Garnier, Romano Garnier and Steve Bellin, Mariagiovanna
Rosati-Hansen has visited the different places of the route. Very
quickly it was decided to make the meander part the prologue of the play, and
to use the square of the Museum and the Théâtre de Verdure for the heart of the
show.
Up to now, the participants of the Rencontres was registered at a workshop for the whole duration of the event. They went every morning in the same room, worked with the same director, with the aim of making an "episode" of the closing show parade. The result was an extremely rich and varied production but sometimes difficult to follow for the public, because the same character was interpreted by different actors depending of the episodes. In 2006, with the work on Noces, a workshop "Characters" made its appearance. The participants of this workshop had to interpret the protagonists throughout the show, and circulated from workshop to workshop to ensure the coherence of the episodes. In 2007, the conception of the synopsis and the richness of the scenography went further. To the "regular" workshops taking place every morning, two "special" workshops were added to replace the others on some mornings. Each young actor participated in several workshops, led by various directors.
Regular Workshops
- The characters workshop, led by Mariagiovanna Rosati-Hansen was in charge of making work the actors interpreting the protagonists of the tragedy: Antigone, Ismène, Créon, Hémon ...
- The Fighting Workshop, led by Fotini Liakopoulou, was dedicated to the choreography of the wandering and fighting between partisans of Eteocles and Polynices.
- The drums workshop, led by Wilfried Bambara, accompanied the women's choir movements and the fights of the partisans of Eteocles and Polynices throughout the closing show. He also created a dance for the funeral of Eteocles.
- The Mime workshop, led by Christian Verhoeven, focused on forming the group of disciples of the diviner Tiresias who took part throughout the tragedy.
- The Voice workshop, led by Nika Kossenkova, took part in the performance of the show in synergy with the percussions, the choir movements and the protagonists.
- The workshop Movements of the Choir, led by Aline Carrier and Florin Didilescu, was responsible to make work the choir of the city of Thebes.
- The neutral choir workshops have prepared the texts that the people of the city of Thebes would say. The actors were divided according to the language. The workshops were conducted by Miltos Sakelariou for the Greek choir, Marco Pernich for the Italian choir, Martin Ward for the English choir, Naomi Exner for the German, Jordi Forcadas for the Spanish and Aline Carrier for the choir in French.
- The polyphonic choir workshop was led by Jacek Ludwig Scarso and prepared the final choir, made up of all the participants of the closing show, ie 200 people.
The construction of the synopsis led the workshops to work in closer relation. Indeed, the Choir Movement workshop had to come after and participate in the choreographies of the fight workshop, and this workshop, once the battle between Eteocles and Polynices completed, was to merge into the Choir Movement workshop for the rest of the play. The Mime, Percussion and Voice workshops took place throughout the show, as did the characters workshop whose members often had to follow the work of another workshop: Eteocles, Polynices and the guard of King Creon came from the fight workshop, the "souls" of Antigone of the Choir Movement workshop, etc... Neutral choirs took place at different times, breaking up the groups that constituted the workshops.
This interaction
between the differents workshops was not easy to set up. It required directors,
leaders of workshop to collaborate even more than usual with Mariagiovanna
Rosati-Hansen and the Créarc team. It was necessary to do more with the unusual
weather of this month of July (cold and rain) which slowed down much the work
in the open air. But at the end of a breathless week, many meetings and hard
work where everyone gave without counting, the sun was back, and the show
ready.
July 12, 2007 - 9pm: On Place Saint André, the actors gather quietly before the drums kick off. Then begins a real high-speed pursuit between partisans of Eteocles and those of Polynices. This year all the way from Place St André to the Théâtre de Verdure has been choreographed and is part of the show. And the difference is striking for the spectators who see two armies ready to fight in the pedestrian artery of the city center.
Arriving
at the Parvis of the Museum of Painting, the crowd mingles with the people of
Thebes and attends the death of the two warlords, before following the funeral
procession to the Théâtre de Verdure. The centralization of the show in one
place allowed the technical team to decently equip the place with projectors and
a sound system. For the first time the closing show makes use of recorded
music, supporting the acting game.
The terraces
are already occupied by a crowd of foresighted spectators. We must find space for
all those who arrive. Many take place on the side grass to the scenic area.
Then begins in the starry night, the tragedy properly speaking of Antigone. The
character is played by a black actress from Burkina Faso. Haemon, his fiancé, is
a young actor from Grenoble. The couple faces a Catalan Creon. The languages intertwine,
the violence is increased, the Tiresias diviner prophesies, the choir rhythm
the conflict.
Under
the ramparts of the old citadel, and facing the Museum of Painting of modern
architecture, the actors form a moving and colorful mass from which stand out
the exemplary figures of the heroes.
When in the end, the couple Antigone - Haemon surrounded by all the other actors, comes to greet the public, it is a wave to hundreds of faces that says its joy to have achieved this common adventure. And the public responds with gratitude. Moment of happiness where it is possible to live the essence of the theater. This citizen theater, demanding and generous that Jean Vilar had in mind when he created the Avignon Festival. And of which our time, France and Europe, need more than ever. For a long time, conversations continued under the big poplars ...
A coproduction : Créarc - 19th Young European Theatre Rencontres
Text : From Sophocle
Director : Maria Giovanna Rosati- Hansen
With : the 250 young actors and musicians of the Rencontres
French version
