The festival-goers were waiting for the nugget, it arrived in the In. Flamboyant in simplicity and beauty. Unexpected. Taken aback, following the cancellation of Les Émigrants by Krystian Lupa at the beginning of June, the director of the Avignon In festival, the Portuguese Tiago Rodrigues resumed his own show, Dans la mesure de l’impossible, created in Geneva and given to the ‘Odeon a year ago.
This son of a doctor and a journalist met around thirty collaborators of the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. He wrote and imagined a show based on his interviews. Beatriz Bras, Isabelle Caillat, Baptiste Coustenoble and Adama Diop, four actors at the peak of their art embody those who devote their lives to others, the “survivors of a disaster”, men and women committed body and soul to humanitarian work .
They talk about this “work” like no other, empty their bag of suffering and hopes, tell their motivations. Sometimes, as with the theatre, said a young girl, there is no meaning to be sought. It’s like that. They cannot stand motionless before the horrors of the world. The call for the “impossible” is stronger than them. When they enter into the “possible” and their loved ones ask them for “stories”, they struggle to be listened to and have only one desire, to go back there. Genocide stories are no laughing matter.
Tiago Rodrigues uses no artifice in the uncluttered staging. Just a gigantic white tent that the actors hoist together or in turn on the stage of the Opéra du Grand Avignon covered with an immaculate canvas. The actors carry the testimonies of the workers on their shoulders, says the raw reality. On drums, Gabriel Ferrandini hits cymbals and produces low frequencies to translate the crackle of weapons and explosions.
Tiago Rodriguez draws realistic and powerful portraits, he placed his trust in his troupe, he was right. Each performance is greeted by a standing ovation from 700 people. Well deserved.
Multilingual show, with French and English surtitles, until July 22 at the Opéra Grand Avignon. Duration 1h50.
Vittorio (Dominique Pinon) is angry with the whole world. He rebuffs his older sister Clara (Catherine Arditi) and her son Lucas (Fabio Marra) nastily. He survives by painting false paintings which he resells to Marco (Aurélien Chaussade). Clara also regularly brings him money, but her attentions irritate him. When the failed artist learns that he will go blind, his behavior changes, he thinks back to their missing mother (Sonia Palau). Emma, the sister of Lucas (Floriane Vincent) arrives (refined decor by Audrey Vuong). Buried secrets resurface, Vittorio reveals himself, his daily life unravels. Once again, in the Color of feelings, the actor author and director Fabio Marra (One step after the other, Together) tells a family story based on a cast of choice. A painter of the intimate, he advances with precise strokes, the outcome arriving at the right time. He has a knack for putting his finger where it hurts without seeming to. Like distant cousins, his characters seem familiar to us. We leave them with regret.
Théâtre des Halles until July 29.
