A Game of Shadows

The ash covering the stage, littered with musical instruments, remind us that Orpheus is halfway between two worlds, in all versions of the myth from its origin to this latest update, which brings together Claudio Monteverdi's baroque music and Valère Novarina's voracity for language. A creation which juxtaposes the ghost of the singular voice dear to the composer and the multitude of lost souls wandering through the playwright's colourful body of work. In this version, the shock of language is real, exhilarating even, when the figure of the musician and lover appears, reminiscing about Ovid. For Jean Bellorini, in a world become Hell, this Orpheus is a “choir of souls” whose words, in their nuances and evocations, are as rich as his music. This more secret, almost Proustian music is also that of a more personal question: why does Orpheus look back? And what does he see now, thrown down from Olympus and into the power of words, in the heart of the dark night ?

With François Deblock, Mathieu Delmonté, Karyll Elgrichi, Anke Engelsmann, Jacques Hadjaje, Clara Mayer, Liza Alegria Ndikita, Hélène Patarot, Marc Plas, Ulrich Verdoni
And Anthony Caillet (euphonium), Aliénor Feix (singing), Clément Griffault (piano), Barbara Le Liepvre (cello), Benoît Prisset (percussions)

Text Valère Novarina
Direction Jean Bellorini
Artistic collaboration Thierry Thieû Niang
Music extracts from Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo 
Musical direction Sébastien Trouvé in collaboration with Jérémie Poirier-Quinot
Stage Jean Bellorini, Véronique Chazal
Lights Jean Bellorini, Luc Muscillo
Costumes Macha Makeïeff
Video Léo Rossi-Roth
Hairdressing and make-up Cécile Kretschmar
Assistant direction Mélodie-Amy Wallet

Production Théâtre national populaire, La Criée - Théâtre national de Marseille
Co-production ExtraPôle Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Festival d'Avignon, Théâtre de Carouge, Grand Théâtre de Provence (Aix-en-Provence), Théâtre de la Cité CDN Toulouse Occitanie, Les Gémeaux - Scène nationale de Sceaux, MC2: Grenoble, Théâtre Gérard Philipe CDN de Saint-Denis, Le Quai CDN Angers Pays de la Loire, Scène nationale du Sud-Aquitain, Anthéa-Antipolis Théâtre d’Antibes, Scène nationale Châteauvallon-Liberté
With the support of Spedidam for the 74th edition of Festival d'Avignon