Housing Estate / Prize Impatience 2016

Housing Estate
A stripped-down set design, light in a primordial role, and a story in which characters don't know how to talk to each other. And it isn't easy to look at each other, as Tommy Milliot explains. For Housing Estate has more to do with tragedy. A tragedy made up of the smallest things, of everyday family hold-ups, of minuscule sensations that, repeated again and again, become irritating. A play that feels like a sensory tragedy in which the fantasies of a son about his father's young girlfriend make everything go off the rail. Reality goes haywire when generations cannot communicate with each other. Housing Estate is therefore about projections and fantasies, about the void and how to fill it. Between the forest and the beach, stuck in the bedroom of a suburban house, the audience are free to let their imagination wander...

An impatient but faithful history
Impatience is what characterises youth. Whether it be a flaw or a quality, it's what drives youth to express itself with such passion, to dive into creation without compromising and with the greatest sincerity. Founded by Olivier Py and Agnès Troly at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in 2009, sponsored by the magazine Télérama then by the CENTQUATRE-PARIS, the Festival Impatience is a snapshot of the state of dramatic creation, an invitation to take a trip through the imagination of young companies and to see the world through their eyes. The goal is to “help new artists make a name for themselves right away; to help them connect with a larger audience; to encourage them to explore and take risks while rewarding audiences' curiosity.” Impatience thus presents moments of theatre at once challenging and generous, a breeding ground of unprecedented creativity that is just waiting to be discovered. Selected and presented by La Colline and the CENTQUATRE-PARIS, the eight companies of the 8th edition of the Festival Impatience, which will be held from 2 to 12 June, will be awarded three prizes: the audience award, the high school students' prize, and the jury prize. The latter offers the winning company the chance to tour Île-de-France, Brittany, and Switzerland, but before that, and for the first time ever, to play at the Festival d'Avignon, where we will be waiting for them impatiently.

When were those companies impatient?
If we base our expectations for the audience award of the Festival Impatience on the one received by Thomas Jolly—who will be presenting two creations of his own this summer, including one with his company La Piccola Familia—in 2009, we can expect the 2016 winner to be fascinating and to be a bearer of hope for the future of European theatre. But each year has its own jury, its own audience, and its own surprises, and for the past seven years, Impatience has played a large part in the rise of many artists like Thomas Jolly, the Collectif 71, Nathalie Garraud and Olivier Saccomano, the Raoul Collectif, Fabrice Murgia, Laurent Brethome, Jonathan Châtel, the Winter Family, etc. Those are now household names when it comes to contemporary creation, and the Festival d'Avignon has always welcomed them. Those young artists were particularly present in 2015, with Nathalie Garraud's Soudain la nuit (Suddenly the night), the Winter Family's No Word/FPLL, Jonathan Châtel's Andreas, and Riquet, the show for young audiences created by Laurent Brethome and his company Le Menteur Volontaire; the year before that, Fabrice Murgia presented the poetic Notre peur de n'être (Our Fear of (Not) Being), Nathalie Garraud an itinerant version of Othello, and Thomas Jolly thrilled audiences with his 18-hour-long version of Henry VI.

What about tomorrow?
Their names are for now largely unknown, but the artists selected for the Festival Impatience could very well be tomorrow's rising stars. Those companies make theatre stages a necessity, a place where they can show how they see the world with the words of youth, an echo to denounce our societies' lack of sharing. The Belgian collective Mariedl confronts man with his lies, while the company Man Haast shows him struggling with new technologies. Alexandre Zeff reinvents the myth of the warring brothers while Lena Paugam questions the current crisis of desire. You'll find few comedies here, but rather a large choice of everyday tragedies that speak of the world with the utmost incredulity. Non, c'est pas ça ! (Treplev variation) (No, that's not it!), by the collective Le Grand Cerf Bleu, is about our magnificent failures in our quest for the ideal, and the collective A Tire-d'Aile plays with the notion of heroism by having actresses play Achilles and Hector. With Denis Kelly's DNA, the company L'AN 01 laughs of the pulsions of youth, and Marcus Borja creates a soundtrack for 52 performers and 52 spectators in Théâtre. The emphasis is on troupe work and stage writing, as creation nowadays is easier as part of a collective. What will we discover? Come and find out on 11 June. 

Text Frédéric Vossier
Direction, stage design, lights Tommy Milliot
Dramaturgy and voice Sarah Cillaire
Video Vlad Chirita

With Eye Haidara, Miglen Mirtchev, Isaïe Sultan

Production MAN HAAST

With the support of CENTQUATRE-PARIS, Montévidéo – créations comtemporaines (Marseille), Festival actoral, la Loge, Carreau du Temple. Un projet  initié par Hubert Colas pour une première mise en espace dans le cadre du Festival actoral.14 en partenariat avec le CNT

Organization of Festival Impatience CENTQUATRE-PARIS, La Colline – théâtre national and Télérama
Partnerships in diffusion Festival d'Avignon, L'Apostrophe scène nationale de Cergy-Pontoise et du Val d'Oise, Espace 1789 de Saint-Ouen, Théâtre de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines scène nationale, Théâtre Louis Aragon à Tremblay en France, Le Canal Théâtre du Pays de Redon, La Loge à Paris, Studio-Théâtre de Vitry sur Seine, Théâtre Populaire Romand à la Chaux-de-Fonds (Suisse)
With the support of Région Île-de-France, SACD, ODIA Normandie, Spectacle vivant en Bretagne, Réseau en scène Languedoc-Roussillon and OARA Aquitaine