PARIS – Birds flying around the ruins of the Port-Royal-des-Champs, a former abbey southwest of Paris, may have been startled by a flock of visitors who arrived on a recent Saturday. Around 11am, a red-eyed Parisian stepped off the bus for a 7-hour hike through the site and surrounding forest.
When “joy of man’s desire, Clara Edouin’s adaptation of the 1935 Jean Giono novel to nature made the most of its unusual setting. Hunting took place in the forest. The central theme, agriculture, was discussed in front of the actual barn. The bird’s name was finally listed for a human audience in the meadow.
This trek wasn’t what you’d expect from an urban arts festival like Paris Laete (literally ‘Paris in Summer’). But this multidisciplinary festival, which began in 1990 as a way to keep the Parisian performing arts scene alive during the quiet summer months, has always had a quirky side.
The first director, Patrice Martinett, was delighted to bring unconventional works to the venue, from gardens to suburban homes. In 2016, a new team was appointed under Lawrence de Magalhaes and Stéphane Ricordel, who were already at the helm of his playhouse at Montfort in Paris. They soon changed the name of the festival from Paris Quartier d’Eté to the more innocent Paris d’Eté.
While de Magalhaes and Ricordel’s early tenure saw the festival’s programming decline in quality and originality, the 2022 edition suggests they have found their current footing. Paris’ Letté remains much smaller than major French summer festivals like Avignon, but this year it had plenty of interesting productions. The week before ‘Joy of Man’s Desiring’, locals and visitors can choose from a Ukrainian punk concert, an immersive performance starring professional strippers and a blabla theater show made entirely out of cardboard props I was able to.
On Bastille Day, July 14, the Ukrainian band Dak Daughters, who have performed frequently at the Théâtre de Montfort since 2013, will return to the stage in a very different political situation with a packed house. The audience was watching. This radical feminist group bridges the gap between punk and folk influences with astonishing ease and dark theatricality, and has long criticized Ukraine’s Maidan revolution in 2014 and Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the Donbass region. I’ve been singing But now an entire nation of bands is under attack.
“Close the skies over Ukraine,” read a screen behind the group early in the show, before images of the conflict, Russian nationalist propaganda and protests around the world appeared. In , the story of an ordinary Ukrainian was read in narration. Halfway through the concert, the ladies of Dac Her Daughters, who also appeared at the Avignon Festival this week, asked the audience for her minute’s silence.
The band performed a number of songs composed before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and although its members wore their usual tutu and combat boots and painted their faces white, the band’s typical unbanned playing style An edge of cold despair overshadowed even the loudest, most percussive moments. “I want to go home,” the band’s drummer said at one point, in a soft French accent. When her answer was a resounding “yes,” she whispered: “Good idea.”
Apart from Dakh Daughters, this year’s Paris l’Été focused primarily on new and recent French productions. “”Strip: at risk of falling in loveDirected and acted by Julie Benegmos and Marion Coutrell in high school, the film gave audiences a window into the world of professional striptease, keeping them on the edge of their seats and promising one-on-one time. . A private stripper in his booth for the lucky few.
The production relied a little too much on this literal teasing. Early on, Benegmos and Cutarel explained that onlookers were regularly presented with flowers and encouraged to follow them outside a small auditorium. When I attended, two men and one woman were selected and the audience was left wondering what would happen next. (The answer comes last. I won’t reveal it, but it involves a hypothetical role reversal.)
The rest of “Strip: At the Risk of Like It” includes filmed interviews with other professional strippers, pole dancing numbers, and questions about the freedom women are given when selling erotic performances. and many other interesting contents. But the structure of the show never fully flows, with abrupt transitions that keep this material from delving deeper.
“”Fat people often skate.cardboard cabaret’ On the other hand, it takes an incredibly complex idea and makes it work through sheer virtuosity. The show featured Olivier Martin Salvin in a smart suit sitting throughout the show, muttering in a mix of expressive yet gibberish English and gibberish, while Pierre Guillois was a boxer. Jumping around him in his pants, dozens of cardboard cutouts as a means to tell the story.
They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and have words to describe what they stand for, such as ‘fjord’, ‘tree’, ‘hail’ or even ‘fly swat’. With the help of his two assistants on either side, performer maverick Guillois spins lo-fi yet meticulous choreography out of these props. (Despite the title, the closest thing to skating is a shoebox under Martin-Salvan’s feet.)
“Fat People Skate Better. A Cardboard Cabaret” has won numerous awards this season, including the Moliere Prize, and it was clear why in this open-air revival at the Center Culturel Irlandais. Puns and visual jokes abound as Martin-Salvan’s character goes on a silly quest around European countries to reconnect with a siren he’s met (in her Guillois form with a cardboard tail). Scattered. There is currently no match for this on the French stage, and an immediate standing ovation for him rewarded the duo’s originality.
The originality of Edouin’s open-air saga around Port-Royal-des-Champs, The Joy of Human Desire, was of a different nature and unwelcome by the seventh hour. Giono, in the novel the show is based on, is an early environmentalist, and his characters are all residents of a small village who seeks to regain their joy with the help of a mysterious stranger. I melted. However, the cast’s interpretation of Giono’s lyrical style was often mushy, giving a sense that the production had yet to find its inner rhythm.
Still, armed with the camping stools provided by Paris l’Été, it was a pleasure to roam the woods and abbey ruins. After all, it was a sign that the festival was gaining momentum and becoming unconventional again.
Paris Lete.
It will take place at various venues in Paris until July 31st.
