In this program in the colors of Spain, a touch of Portuguese: Tiago Rodrigues will offer a creation in partnership with the Comédie-Française: Hecube, not Hecube, after Euripides. “My modesty does not allow me to say that I am coming with this show, it is the Frenchman who comes with Hécube, not Hécube and who gives me the privilege of writing and directing this play,” confides he.
The director of the Avignon Festival has long admired the Maison de Molière troupe. “I started rehearsing this show at the end of 2021. I explained to Éric Ruf, (the general administrator of Le Français, Editor’s note) that I had applied against all probability to the Avignon Festival and that my candidacy for direction of the demonstration finally seemed to be taken seriously and that if I were nominated, I would prefer to postpone the project. I wanted to devote myself entirely to the festival and its team. Éric Ruf elegantly told me: “If you are named director of the festival, then we will stage your play in Avignon.” »
In collaborating with the Comédie-Française, Tiago Rodrigues sees a symbol. He also remembers his origins. “There is also an ancient story that is told, I think of my father exiled at the time of the Salazar dictatorship, he lived in Paris; I also think of my uncles. Today, one of us has become the author and director of a play which has now entered the repertoire of the Comédie-Française. And what’s more, who directs the Avignon Festival and presents a world creation. It’s more the look of my uncles that impresses me than that of French society. »
Also read: Tiago Rodrigues, superimposed theater
Hecuba, not Hecuba tells the story of “a woman who lost everything and who demands justice. However, this tragedy impacts the personal life of the actress who plays it. A free rewrite for the Comédie-Française,” indicates the program. It is the member Elsa Lepoivre who will play the Queen of Troy.
In 2023, as director of the Avignon Festival, Tiago Rodrigues released By Heart, in the main courtyard of the Palais des Papes. A grandmother who had become blind asked her grandson to choose a book that she could learn by heart. The director played in it and got the audience involved. She did not leave a lasting memory, but the ambition was not the same.
