A professional hero, Lancelot falls in love with a virgin who the people sacrifice to the dragon which reigns over the town. For four centuries, the people and the burgmeisters have complacently perpetuated the tyranny of the \'vile beast', because, so it's said, “the only way to be safe from other dragons is to have your own dragon at home.” The company based in Liège, Belgium, plays out the adventures of the knight and his beloved under a circus tent. This festive, popular and fairground-style theatre, maked by the atmosphere of German expressionism, provided by Axel De Booseré et Maggy Jacot embraces all stage forms and uses other inventions besides to question the place of the individual and their role in society. Evgeny Schwartz was twenty years old in Russia in October 1917. An actor, a journalist, and an author of stories for children, he was awarded a medal at the beginning of the 1940s for having actively defended Leningrad against the German siege. His inspiration for The Dragon came from a tale by Hans Christian Andersen and from Hitler. It is a denunciation of facist dictatorship, expressed in the misfortunes of Lancelot. When it was first performed in 1944, The Dragon was perceived as an attack on the regime and was censored by the Communist authorities. Nearly sixty years later, Compagnie Arsenic invites us to reflect constructively with their humour, on democracy.
Distribution
stage direction Axel De Booseré
by :la compagnie Arsenic
cast: Mireille Bailly, Vincent Cahay, Denis Closset, Jean-Luc Couchard, Antonio Fernandez-Reina, Jean-Philippe Lejeune, Virginie Ransart, Claire Renard, Fabrice Schillaci
conceptor and dramaturg :Maggy Jacot et Axel De Booseré
scenography, costumes and masks :Maggy Jacot
lighting :Gérard Maraite
sound :François Joinville
make-up :Serge Bellot
puppets :Jean-Marc et Anna Le Goïc
choreography :Darren Ross
writing (Elsas final speech) :Claude Semal
théâtre d'ombres: Virginie Ransart
assistant director :Mireille Bailly
Production
Production: Compagnie Arsenic (Liège)
en coproduction avec: le Théâtre national de la Communauté Wallonie Bruxelles
Avec l'aide :de la Communauté Wallonie Bruxelles - services du Théâtre et des Tournées Art et Vie
Avec le soutien: du Commissariat général aux Relations internationales et de l'Agence wallonne à l'Exportation