In the beginning there was a phenomenal and exemplary work : the one thousand pages of Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, divided into four volumes, four days, four names. Then it was joined by a very old and stubborn desire from a stage director, Stuart Seide. Fourteen years after his first, sketchy theatrical experiment with this novel, Seide has been hauled back by an imperious need, back towards the colours and the smells of this phantasmagorical Alexandria, towards its' sensual passions, these beings who meet, fall in love and separate. Stuart Seide, in four acts and four movements of life, today brings together on a theatre stage, the multiple realities of these changing, fragile and ephemeral heroes. In an incandescent Provence, not far from the village of Sommières where Durrell dreamed and wrote these tormented destinies, the director revisits, like the narrator of the story, the narrow streets of Alexandria. It' s a poetic musing where actors talk about romances and proffer the Quartet, in selected passages seized in the intensity of emotions, navigating between suffering and pleasure, pitching tears against joy. The destinies of these vacillating men and women flourish under the stars. It' s about intimacy, about love, truth and sincerity. A voyage in time and memory, towards shores which are familiar to us all.
Distribution
stage direction Stuart Seide
cast: Michaël Abiteboul, Emmanuelle Baillot, Michel Bompoil,
Anne Caillère, Eric Challier, Olivier Cruveiller, Olivier Dautrey,
Roland Depauw, Hélène Lausseur, Valérie Lemaître, Laurence Masliah,
Pierre-Henri Puente, Alain Rimoux, Luc Tartar
adapted for stage :Stuart Seide
translation by: Roger Giroux
stage design :Charles Marty
costumes :Fabienne Varoutsikos
lighting :Olivier Oudiou
sound :Marc Bretonnière
make-up and hair :Catherine Nicolas
assistant directors: Fabienne Lottin, Luc Tartar
Production
Production :Théâtre national Lille Tourcoing Région Nord Pas-de-Calais
En coproduction avec : le Festival d'Avignon
Avec le soutien du: Théâtre des Gémeaux-Scène Nationale de Sceaux