After a summer break, the theater resumes its rights in Pont-à-Mousson. Like every year, the city of the Grand Est welcomes the Summer Monsoon, meeting of theatrical writings. The event, created by the Nancy director Michel Didym, will soon celebrate its thirtieth anniversary. Since 1995, the ambition has remained the same: to reveal emerging playwrights from all over the world. It will be held in the abbey of Prémontrés from August 24 to 30.
The event displays a pronounced taste for plays with light stagings. The important thing is in the text. In Pont-à-Mousson, there are no large sets, especially readings, stagings, cabarets. “We want to cultivate what makes the Summer Monsoon unique,” explains director and director Véronique Bellegarde. It goes through our programming. We allow ourselves to program texts from Hong Kong, Norway, Germany…” The texts are selected by a reading committee to which Véronique Bellegarde belonged for a long time. “The choice is always guided by our favorites for a text, whether it comes from a near or far country, she observes. The main thing is to have a look at the unknown, to offer the viewer another way of seeing the world.
This year, the event can boast of presenting texts from a dozen different nationalities, from Cameroon to Canada via China and Italy. Authors Lydie Tamisier, Mona El Yafi and Pauline Sauveur will represent France this year. Other artists will come to perform, including the actor Jacques Bonnaffé. If most of the guest playwrights are still confidential, some big names are on the bill. In particular that of the new director of the Avignon festival Tiago Rodrigues. With his text Three fingers below the knee, the playwright will represent the country where he was born, Portugal.
The festival has set up several systems to train professionals and beginners in writing methods. A summer university first, in which nearly 80 trainees will receive training in theatrical writing. “It’s a real writing school, which allows a week-long immersion with lots of practice and reading. La Mousson is a beehive to encourage projects to hatch,” smiles Véronique Bellegarde. Among the former students of this summer university, the director Pauline Bureau, rewarded in 2022 with the Molière for living French-speaking author for her show Féminines.
In addition to writing lessons, partnerships allow scheduled authors to transform the essay and go on tour. “The idea is to bring together texts and directors. That the writing presented materializes in projects”, concludes Véronique Bellegarde. Like a relay, towards the theater.
The Summer Monsoon, Prémontrés Abbey, Pont-à-Mousson (54), from August 24 to 30. Tel.: 03 83 81 20 22. www.meec.org
