The Avignon Festival, one of the biggest theatrical events in the world, opens on Wednesday with a new boss, Tiago Rodrigues, and reinforced security measures after several days of riots in France. Every July, the City of the Popes is transformed into a city-theatre, shared between the in, the official festival, and the off, the largest live performance market in France.
For this 77th edition, which starts against a background of urban violence, national and municipal police will deploy “a coordinated device” in the city: reinforcement of mobile force units, securing pedestrian areas, random identity checks in space public and foot and mountain bike patrols, according to the Vaucluse prefecture. In the air, a jamming device will be implemented to enforce the ban on overflights of Avignon by drones, with possible use of drones for the surveillance of the largest gatherings.
The Festival d’Avignon is spread over around forty places, in the city but also outside the city, while the off has 140 places and welcomes nearly 1200 companies. For its first edition, Tiago Rodrigues, successor to Olivier Py, has chosen to open with Welfare, a show of a social nature by Julie Deliquet, the second director to present a play in the Cour d’honneur of the Palais des Papes after Ariane Mnouchkine. Another opening show: G.R.O.O.V.E by the pioneer of hip-hop in France Bintou Dembélé, who organizes a dancing stroll.
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“It’s a theater festival that is not blind to the injustices of the world,” recalls Mr. Rodrigues, who invites a large majority of new faces, some performing for the first time in France. He decided to invite a language to each edition and, this year, English is in the spotlight, “in response to Brexit”. “At a time when ramparts are being built to keep us away from our British friends, bridges must be built. It’s a kind of cultural diplomacy,” he says, adding that after years of absence, the management of the Edinburgh Festival will be there to discover French creation.
Even before the start of the festival, the Portuguese had to deal with two unforeseen events: the deprogramming of a highly anticipated show and the high cost of reopening a mythical place of the festival, the Carrière de Boulbon, about fifteen kilometers away. from Avignon. Co-produced by the festival, the play Les Émigrants by Krystian Lupa, a Polish theater master, was canceled a month ago by the Comédie de Genève, where the premiere was to be held, due to a confrontation between the director , accused of abusive behavior, and the technical team. It has been replaced by a piece by Tiago Rodrigues himself. “I had six days without sleep to try to save the show but, in the end, it was impossible,” said the director to AFP.
“Not replacing it would have represented for the Festival d’Avignon a financial damage of more than 300,000 euros”, explains to AFP Mr. Rodrigues. “I couldn’t ask artists, especially emerging ones, to replace a show at the last moment at the Opéra Grand Avignon (700 seats). It would have been a huge risk and very irresponsible. He claims not to have enough perspective on “this unfortunate episode”, while specifying that “no level of talent justifies violence”.
Second puzzle: the Boulbon Quarry, used for the first time in 1985 for Peter Brook’s Mahabharata and for the last time in 2016. Philippe Quesne will create Le Jardin des délices there, inspired by the painting by Jérôme Bosch. Due to the fire risk system, after last summer’s fires in the region, 250,000 euros more were added to the expected cost of 350,000 euros. The place is now “fully secure”.