François Gremaud
Phèdre !
© Phèdre, François Gremaud © Loan Nguyen ©
© Phèdre, François Gremaud © Loan Nguyen ©
© Phèdre, François Gremaud © Loan Nguyen ©
Conceived and directed by, François Gremaud
With, Romain Daroles
Text, François Gremaud d’après Jean Racine
With Romain Daroles
Assistant director, Arnaud Huguenin, Floriane Mésenge
Stage assistant, Mathias Brossard
Lights, Stéphane Gattoni
A production by 2B company
Executive producer, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne
With the support from Ville de Lausanne; Canton de Vaud; Loterie Romande Pourcent culturel Migros; Hirzel Stiftung; CORODIS, Une Fondation privée genevoise; Pro Helvetia Fondation suisse pour la Culturea
With support from Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
Phèdre ! is not Phèdre. Phèdre ! is a comedy that looks like a conference about Phèdre, Racine's tragedy. François Gremaud has written an exhilarating score for an actor who draws upon his passion for the theatre to summon up an irresistible exclamation of joy.
Alone onstage, an orator recounts the story of Phèdre, its context, mythological origins of its characters and Racine's writing. He then ends up performing the piece, in his own way. Romain Daroles – “révélation théâtrale” of the 57th Prix du Syndicat de la critique in 2020 – is this passionate conference speaker takes on all the roles with no other accessory than a book and sublimates the Alexandrian metre with his south-west France accent. Alongside Giselle... - also on the line-up at the Festival d'Automne's 50th edition – François Gremaud brings us the first opus in a triptych focusing on tragic female figures from classical works of the performing arts. The author and director has developed a style which consists of reducing a piece into a “paraphrase” for an orator. Without depriving it of its marvellous language and emotion it stirs up, the tragedy is twisted into a work of comedy bristling with cultural references from today's world and priceless plays on words. If Phèdre is the expression of passion, Phèdre ! is the exclamation of the joy in the de-dramatisation of tragedy.
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