Le Cratère à la Prairie, for a new crazy season!

110. The countdown is on and this figure is not the estimated number of balls in the back of the net during this US World Cup. But rather that of the shows of the new season of the Cratère theatre, national stage.

There will therefore be sport in the heart of the Prairie during this second program outside the walls. But cerebral, one which gives food for thought, also allowing for Olivier Lataste, director, “to refuse to withdraw into oneself and […] and go see what artists have in store for us to try, together, to re-enchant the world.”

Monday June 15, during a press conference before the public presentation, this Wednesday, the director of the national stage, surrounded by Stavros Skordas, general secretary and Sébastien Paris, responsible for communications, listed the long list of this program 2026-2027, in all artistic disciplines: dance, theater, circus, music…

And if there is madness, the football event does not escape the salutary questioning that the Eddi Van Tsui collective offers (October 7) with “Bread and Games†. A stage match where the place of the artist is questioned at the time of the buzz, of the performance of the permanent game… … “We the red star†by Théo Askolovitch (December 16 and 17), with the great Ariane Ascaride, it is the story of this popular sport, a field of transmission that this theater poses

“In the brain†of Hofesh Shecter’s company (April 24 and 25) and its musicians from 49 countries, a troupe that explores the vitality and transcendental scope of dance

Another madness, that which the prospect of the presidential election, in 2027, which will not fail to arouse and which the Cassandre Company questions with “The art of always being right, a simple, quick and infallible method to win an election†(September 29 to October 1). A satire, of public utility to be completed with “Eight kings (our presidents)†(February 26 and 27), from the company of animals in paradise by Léo Cohen. Or the portrait of our last eight presidents whose staging, without imposing an ideology, questions politics and our relationship to it…
Madness is also that of bodies escaping gravity with the show “TraXXx†by Benoît Belleville and Hélène Soulié, Cirk Vost, in connection with the Verrerie d’Alès, including the mastery of the flying trapeze and support for writing what we leave behind us in a cathedral-sized marquee (December 13, 14 and 15).

Dance, too, with “In the brain†from Hofesh Shecter’s company (April 24 and 25) and its musicians from 49 countries, a troupe which explores the vitality and transcendental scope of dance from the dawn of time to current raves…

Madness is also that of bending to conventions in order to better escape from them. A form of jubilant freedom that Benjamin Tholozan speaks of with “Parler pointu†, an ode to the language of his ancestors in a production by Hélène François in order to trample underfoot and with joy (boudiou!), this bitter glottophobia…

“Impertinent Lessons†by Zou (December 15 and 17), in three parts, including one devoted to the science of kissing, philamatology, draws up, on the board, our sad inabilities to coexist with the list of remedies to apply in order to walk together. To the rhythm of the music, certainly, with the jazz offering “Blossom†, by Airelle Besson and Lionel Suarez (March 13) or “Beethoven folk†(December 4 and 5), a complete collection of the composer’s 16 quartets augmented with traditional music that inspired the German virtuoso. It’s crazy, isn’t it?