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AVIGNON, France – Sounds like a virologist’s nightmare: 1,070 theatrical productions; 116 venues, most of them in the congested medieval center of Avignon; and festivalgoers everywhere, sitting shoulder to shoulder indoors.
Still, the Fringe offering at this summer’s Avignon Festival, which runs parallel to the main event and known as “le Off”, has continued to move forward despite the more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus becoming the dominant strain in France.
Is it problematic to enjoy excellent performances under these conditions? A sense of normalcy came with Avignon’s rituals, including unmasked artists distributing promotional flyers on the street. Still, a sneaking sense of guilt permeated the conversations with moviegoers – at least not when the new restrictions were announced shortly after the Avignon Festival began.
Last week, the French government decided that from 21 July, a “health card” – a QR code proving full vaccination or a negative coronavirus test result – will be required for all venues with more than 50 seats. From August 1, restaurants, bars and trains will be tracked.
Disappointment was palpable in Avignon in the days before the rule came into effect. While roughly half of the fringe venues are small enough to go around, some companies chose to leave early, and larger shows have reported a drop in ticket refunds and bookings. Last weekend, as widespread demonstrations against politics swept through France, protesters took to Avignon’s biggest street, “Liberté!” They filled it with shouting. (“Freedom!”)
Official line-up of the Avignon Festival (“le In” in local language) gloomy to gloomy In its themes, Fringe fare has at least given some respite to pandemic concerns, as comedy has always been a key part of this less affluent part of the festival.
Mehdi-Emmanuel Djaadi and Marc Arnaud’s two original one-man shows combine jokes and impressions with explorations of deep-seated inner conflicts. Djaadi’s “Coming Out” in particular is an exercise in breaking stereotypes. The origin religion in question: The show chronicles the 34-year-old comedian’s transition from Islam to Catholicism.
As Djaadi said in the aptly named Théâtre des Corps Saints (Theatre of Sacred Bodies), support for his choice was minimal. His Algerian family felt that he had turned his back on them; a priest declared that he did not want trouble; Many in the arts circles were uncomfortable with what they saw as the homophobia and conservatism of the Catholic Church.
Yet instead of expressing the resentment he may have felt, Djaadi looks at his journey from teen rebellion and drug dealing to a Catholic wedding with playful love. It points to contradictions on both sides, and churchgoers of France also come for the pointed satire.
In “The Transformation of the Storks,” Arnaud focuses on a much shorter period of time. He and his wife have gone through the IVF process and we met Arnaud just as he was about to donate a sperm sample – a process that was more emotional than he had anticipated.
While she distracts impatient hospital staff, her monologue covers her sex education, therapy attempts, and parenting concerns. A quick and honest reckoning with the rigors of masculinity that filled the Théâtre du Train Bleu (before the health card requirement applied).
Avignon audiences are not turned off by darker shows. At Artéphile, one of the few Fringe venues that also function as a cultural venue throughout the year, director Blandine Pélissier presented the simple and convincing production of “Iphigenia in Splott”.
Welsh playwright Gary Owen is relatively unknown in France, but his 2015 rework of the Iphigenia legend – translated by Pélissier and Kelly Rivière – should make him curious about his work. The victim sacrificed here is Effie, a fierce energy flame from Splott’s Cardiff district, who is unexpectedly pregnant. This 90-minute monologue convincingly attributes the lack of support she faces to cuts in social and medical care, and actress Morgane Peters takes the role from sharp anger to painfully poignant ease.
Productions with larger casts were a bigger challenge this year, given that a positive coronavirus test among the company was enough to put the show on, and as a result director and actress Julie Timmerman downsized her show “A Democrat.” Timmerman reimagined this excellent production about Edward Bernays, Freud’s American nephew, known as the “father of public relations”, for just two actors (Mathieu Desfemmes and himself). The result is a skilful and witty look at the dangers of Bernays’ techniques when used for propaganda purposes.
The Avignon Festival’s official, curated lineup has been hit with a handful of coronavirus-related cancellations, even though it includes far fewer productions than Fringe. While the artistic teams of two choreographers, Dada Masilo and Dimitris Papaioannou, were unable to travel to Avignon, Eva Doumbia’s “Autophagies” was interrupted when the cast and crew members were forced to isolate after coming into contact with an infected person. .
Two ongoing European productions leave a lasting impression. Emma Dante from Italy choreographs as much as she directs, and in “Misericordia” theater turns into dance and vice versa. In it, three women raise a boy named Arturo, who is described as mentally retarded and whose mother is a victim of domestic violence. Together, they form a contending, complex family. Dancer Simone Zambelli not only captures Arturo’s twitching, detached body, but also transforms his physical fragility and moments of joy into poetry, knotting himself into meaningful shapes.
Avignon also hosted the stage version of “Pieces of a Woman”. before it happens a movie starring Vanessa Kirby last year, playwright Kata Weber and director Kornel Mundruczo envisioned it for the TR Warszawa theater in Warsaw, and the Polish actor delivered a heartfelt punch at the Lycée Théodore Aubanel in Avignon.
The play begins with the same long work scene as the movie, but takes up less narrative space after the center couple’s baby is stillborn. While the screen version details the trial of a midwife attending the birth, this is only hinted at as a possibility on stage, and Maja, who has lost her child, refuses to continue with her. Instead, the characters’ grief is played out at a long family dinner at Maja’s mother’s house.
The result requires more patience from viewers, but rewards it with a fully formed portrait of a rambunctious family. Bu anlamda, “Pieces of a Woman”ın sahne versiyonu Weber ve Mundruczo’nun yapbozunu tamamlıyor: Umalım ki Avignon tek uluslararası durağı olmasın.
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