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Introduction to the festival
by Rosslyn Hyams
Article published on the 2008-05-08 Latest update 2008-09-16 11:55 TU
The courtyard in the Palace of the Popes, Avignon
© Christophe Raynaud de Lage / Festival d’Avignon
Avignon theatre festival
In the sunny south-east of France, it’s not surprising that Avignon heats up in July. Breezes lifting from the neighbouring Rhone River don’t always manage to find their way though the solid 13th century ramparts which define the City of the Popes (as it’s known, even if they don’t live there any more).
Why go there in July when you can visit the Unesco-listed World Heritage site in say, Spring, when blossoms delicately decorate the almond trees in the region?
Well, one reason is the Avignon Festival. It’s the French performing arts festival.
It’s huge. Day and night, there is something going on. As well as the official Avignon Festival, known as the “in” -- which started in 1947 as an idea by Jean Vilar and friends to take good public-funded theatre outside of Paris -- there’s the “off”, the Fringe Festival.
Avignon is a medium-sized town, normally quite quiet and largely middle-class, basking in the splendour of its past and its café terraces of the present. In July however, its population swells (book accommodation early!) and in some of its shady squares, it can be tough to find anywhere to sit outside the fountain when you want to sip your glass of rosé. It’s just full of theatre-goers.
The Avignon Theatre Festival can be, for everyone who likes live performance, a great cultural adventure.
Each year, there will be tried and trusted plays like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, for example, but performed on horseback with music that could have come from a Buddhist temple (even those too young to understand the finer points of regicide can enjoy the man-beast connection).
And, as the Avignon Festival is in France, rest assured there will be at least one production of a Molière play -- if not in the "in", definitely several in the "off" -- in someone’s disused garage or on the back of a truck.
There will also be shows by new and newer playwrights (Sarah Kane, Jean-Luc Lagarce, Jan Lauwers, Roderigo Garcia etc.), by older and newer directors (Peter Brook, Bernard Sobel, Jan Fabre, Olivier Py etc.) and plenty of dance (Sasha Walz, Josef Nadj etc.).
Artists and spectators alike go to play in Avignon, whether for drama, dance, music, circus, video or puppetry or any combination of the above. But The Avignon Festival is also a place where we are shown, through the mirror of the stage, the way we ourselves and others live in the world.
Other festivals -- theatre and street theatre
Chalon dans la rue (Chalon-sur-Saône)
Les nuits de fourvière (Lyon)
Quartiers d'été (Paris)
