For its 40th anniversary, the Printemps des Comédiens returns to its usual format with around twenty shows from all over the world, from May 29 to June 21 at the Domaine d’O and other venues. Several pieces presented from the opening weekend and worn by local artists question the great contemporary stories around motherhood, mourning, identity or democracy.
Phew, returning for its 40th edition, after a weight loss cure, the Printemps des Comédiens finds its usual form over a long period. Time to enjoy around twenty shows from all over the world: like Europa directed by Polish Krzysztof Warlikowski, Vania by Chekhov by the Chilean Guillermo Cacace or even Ivanov by the same Russian author proposed by Luxembourger Myriam Muller. But the largest French theater festival after Avignon also offers, for its opening weekend, a majority of local offerings. If we were to draw a common thread among the five offerings, we would perhaps find that they examine our founding stories, questioning myths that are crumbling.
Motherhood, mourning and collective stories
Pour 5 Seconds by Hélène Soulié (Domaine d’O, Saturday 7:30 p.m. and Sunday 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.), it would be that of the good mother. It is a one-off scene carried by Maxime Taffanel, to a text by Catherine Benhamou inspired by a real news story: a woman entrusts her baby to a stranger on the RER before disappearing. The piece questions the injunctions weighing on motherhood, male fragilities, the norms inherited from childhood.
Pour And everything went into disarray (Kiasma, Saturday and Sunday at 5 p.m.) by Julie Benegmos and Marion Coutarel, this would be the myth of the funeral rite. After two years of investigation into the funeral market, the play offers a theatrical deconstruction of a funeral home. The show questions the way in which our contemporary societies have chased death from their representations, leaving the bereaved deprived of rites and meaning.
With The Gauls (Domaine d’O, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 10 p.m.), written by Marion Aubert, we touch on the myth of origins. In this room, two “forty-something, white, Gallic guys” including Olivier Martin-Salvan from the hilarious duo of Big skate well seen a few years ago at the festival, explore their identity in a fantasized and unstable Gaul. Half men, half wild boars, they pick mistletoe, wait for the Romans and ask themselves existential questions about virility, nationalism, collective memory.
Democracy and the imperfect show
Pour Tragédie Démocratie (Théâtre des 13 vents, Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.), Lara Marcou and Marc Vittecoq examine the myth of the “cradle of democracy”. In a French pre-electoral context, Group O delves into the Athenian democracy of the 5th century to question this word that everyone thinks they understand and that no one defines in the same way.
Finally, with We’ll do better next time (Domaine d’O, Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m.), Nicolas Heredia, who worked with the professional actors and actresses with disabilities from La Bulle Bleue, takes on the myth of the brilliant actor or the perfect show. This “performed documentary” shows actors who “try, fail again, fail better”, like Beckett’s formula.
