Le Printemps des acteurs, a theater festival to be held in Montpellier from June 1 to 21, is beginning its transformation into a
"European city of theatre"
, opening with its first major international production entrusted to star director Ivo van Hove
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"
A very important event is taking shape: the creation of a production unit in view of the merger of the Printemps des acteurs and the Domaine d'O to make a European City of Theater
", confided to a month of the opening of the 37th edition Jean Varela, director of these two institutions called to become only one at the beginning of 2024. This merger "
contributes to consolidating the work undertaken for several years, namely to create a theater sector in Montpellier
", said he added, citing the collaborations with theater schools and other master classes which will multiply next year.
"
At least European directors
", such as the enfant terrible of the Italian theater Romeo Castellucci, as well as
"artists trained and living in the territory
", will find their place in the new structure, which is also part of the Montpellier's candidacy for the title of European Capital of Culture 2028, he underlines.
To mark the start of this transition, the Printemps des acteurs has therefore entrusted its "
first major international production"
this year to the Belgian Ivo van Hove, a regular at the festival, who recently caused a sensation with his Broadway revival of
West Side Story
and with the first version of Molière's
Tartuffe
which he staged at the Comédie-Française.
Ivo van Hove this time took over two texts by Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman,
After the Rehearsal
and
Persona
, for which he called on Charles Berling and Emmanuelle Bercot, among others.
After Montpellier from June 1 to 4, the diptych will be performed this winter at the Théâtre de la ville de Paris, then in Luxembourg, Geneva, Toulon, Le Havre and La Rochelle.
“Thinking about the uncertainties of time”
“
This edition plunges us into very significant questions about the political situation in Europe.
It will be a non-didactic theater, but a joyful theater, troupe, which does not deliver answers but which rather helps us to face the uncertainties of time”
, underlined Jean Varela.
With
De Wij
(Le Vij), the Russian director and filmmaker in exile Kirill Serebrennikov author of the film
The Woman of Tchaikovsky
, who will sign next season at the Paris Opera his first opera production in France with
Lohengrin
by Wagner will once again denounce the war in Ukraine, inspired by an old Russian myth made famous by Gogol.
Read alsoRussia is “self-destructing” with the war in Ukraine, says filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov
Julien Gosselin will present a new 5-hour long piece,
Extinction
, devoted to Vienna before the First World War, which will then be performed in July at the prestigious Festival d'Avignon.
“
Seen from the other side of the world, Montpellier, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Arles... It's the same district.
You can see the best of international creation there in a tight time, it's extraordinary
", enthuses Jean Varela, welcoming "
a new way of thinking about things, of working in close proximity, in a network with our neighbours" .
Among the other highlights of "Spring", its boss points in particular
to The Aesthetics of Resistance
, directed by Sylvain Creuzevault from the work of Peter Weiss, on the rise of Nazism,
Ubu
by Bob Wilson, from after Alfred Jarry and Joan Miro,
Oasis de la Impunidad
by the Chilean company la Re-Sendidan or
Léon Blum, une vie héroïque
, by Charles Berling, Philippe Collin and Violaine Ballet, on one of the great figures of 20th century socialism .
