Frank Castorf

Bajazet En considérant « Le Théâtre et la Peste » based on Jean Racine and Antonin Artaud

Archive 2019
Theatre
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
decemberdec 4 – 14

© © Mathilda Olmi ©

© © Mathilda Olmi ©

© © Mathilda Olmi ©

1/3

Directed by Frank Castorf
With Jeanne Balibar, Jean-Damien Barbin, Adama Diop, Mounir Margoum, Claire Sermonne, and a live camera
Texts, Jean Racine, and Antonin Artaud
Stage design, Aleksandar Denic
Costumes, Adriana Braga Peretzki
Music, William Minke
Video, Andreas Deinert
Lighting, Lothar Baumgarte
 Costumes assistant, Sabrina Bosshard
Direction assistant, Hanna Lasserre
Direction trainees, Camille Logoz, Camille Roduit
Scenography trainees, Maude Bovey
Produced by Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne ; MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine Saint-Denis
Coproduced by ExtraPôle Sud-PACA ; Grand Théâtre de Provence (Aix-en-Provence) with support from Friche la Belle de Mai (Marseilles) ; Théâtre National de Strasbourg ; Maillon – Théâtre de Strasbourg – Scène européenne ; Tandem scène nationale (Arras-Douai) ; Bonlieu scène nationale Annecy ; TNA – Teatro Cervantes – Teatro Nacional Argentino (Buenos Aires) ; and Festival d’Automne à Paris
In association with MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine Saint-Denis ; and Festival d’Automne à Paris
This show is supported by the PEPS project within the framework of the Interreg France-Suisse 2014-2020 programme promoting cross-border cooperation in Europe // With support from Adami
First performed on the 30th October 2019 at Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne
In partnership with France Inter

Frank Castorf, one of the emblematic figures of German theatre, revisits, in French, Jean Racine’s Bajazet. Tackling this classical author’s work is a challenge few non-French speaking artists have taken up. This production sees Castorf confronting it with Antonin Artaud’s famous essay, Theatre and The Plague, the first chapter of Theatre and its Double.

In his majestic adaptations of Dostoyevsky, Bulgakov, and Celine, for example, Frank Castorf has brought us theatre which serves as a proof of liberty in itself, and which does not shy away from human weakness or cowardice, nor its contradictions. By combining Racine and Artaud, he brings to light what these two French poets have in common: the spoken word, theatre’s anchorage point, as the crucial place where the burning heart of their works is played out. This, of course, has much to do with Castorf’s own uncompromising, unsentimental brand of theatre. The spoken word is the arm with which Racine’s heroes untangle themselves from the constraints of the straightjacket around them, allowing them to follow their true desires. For Artaud, it was via the reinvention of language that he could free himself from what birth, society and language had imposed on him, enabling him to be reborn as his true self, the ultimate goal of his life and his incandescent art.
Bajazet plays out in the huis clos of Constantinople’s seraglio. The Sultan himself is absent. For each character, favourite, pretender, brother or vizier, true love comes into contradiction with political ambition, and living out one’s passions to the full is synonymous with death. The tragedy exposes man’s altogether fallible spirit and the impossibility of pure, unadulterated feelings. By adapting Racine, Castorf transports us from one century to another, brings two major authors together and wakes up our interior demons.
––––––
Estimated running time : 4h interval included
Performance with English subtitles on 6 and 8 December

In the same place

MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
septembersept 18 – 22

Soa Ratsifandrihana
Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna

Dance

Committing moving bodies to a contemporary form of orality, Soa Ratsifandrihana, the guitarist Joël Rabesolo and performers Audrey Mérilus and Stanley Ollivier draw on their diasporic narratives and origins to tell a story they would have liked to hear or see. The three Malagasy words Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna, meaning comparison, transmission and rivalry, form variations in which the performers slide in and out of different states and seem to follow a movement in perpetual metamorphosis.
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
octoberoct 13

Jeanne Balibar
Les Historiennes

RépertoireTheatre

Three women return from the past thanks to three female contemporary historians who bring them back to life via three separate accounts. Here, the actress Jeanne Balibar uses them as the basis for a staged reading. Four women from today’s world take a particularly eloquent and incisive look at three emblematic female destinies.
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 5 – 8

Nacera Belaza
La Nuée

Dance
Buy tickets

With a reputation for minimalist and captivating choreographies, Nacera Belaza continues the exploration of the circle and rhythm she initiated with Le Cercle (2019) and L'Onde (2021), both landmarks in her choreographic language. Following on from an initial period of creation in Brussels in May 2024, the choreographer then enlarged the creative process of La Nuée by inviting ten new performers to the stage.
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 14 – 17

Stefan Kaegi (Rimini Protokoll)
This is not an embassy (Made in Taiwan)

TheatrePerformance
Buy tickets

Rimini Protokoll's roving director Stefan Kaegi takes us, in the company of three native performers and residents, to the island of Taiwan. The fictional element of this show, in which the onstage action filmed live takes us through the twists and turns of a miniature décor, points to a somewhat grotesque geopolitical reality.
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 22 – 30

Rosana Cade, Ivor MacAskill
The Making of Pinocchio

Theatre
Buy tickets

Drawing upon Collodi's tale, the Cade-MacAskill duo uses theatre to investigate the little- explored realms of queer love and affection. In doing so, they tell the story of gender transition and its repercussions on the couple. The piece itself, The Making of Pinocchio, becomes a burlesque-inspired manifesto for different forms currently under construction.
Points communs – Théâtre des Louvrais
novembernov 14 – 16
Scène nationale de l'Essonne – Théâtre de l’Agora
novembernov 19 – 20
MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis
novembernov 29 - december – dec 29
La Merise
decemberdec 12 – 14
La Ferme du Buisson, Scène nationale – cinéma – centre d’art contemporain
decemberdec 18 – 19

Joël Pommerat
Marius

Theatre

Inspired by the work of Marcel Pagnol, this show explores the theme of escape. Some of the actors had their first experience of theatre at the Maison centrale d'Arles prison. Marius provides audiences with a unique opportunity to discover a little-known but crucial dimension of Joël Pommerat's art.