Fairy queen

Ludovic Lagarde, a man who has directed the works of Brecht, Bond and Chekhov, wanted to do theatre to learn to read literary texts. Olivier Cadiot, author of a book of poetry intermingled with a novel and published by P. O. L, a work-mate of music composers (Georges Aperghis, Pascal Dusapin and Benoît Delbecq), translator of the Song of Songs and the biblical Psalms, author of lyrics (for Kat Onoma, Rodolphe Burger and Alain Bashung), sometimes comes on stage to read from his works. The two men met in a bar, just as the laws of need and chance would have it. Olivier Cadiot watched Samuel Beckett's Trois Dramaticules (A piece of Monologue, That Time and Ohio Impromtu), directed by Ludovic Lagarde, who discovered \'Poetic Art', a poetical explosion and exploration by Olivier Cadiot who in his particular way, developed the \'cut-up', a way of “taking samples of reality and re-arranging them” from grammar books. Their working partnership materialized with Le Colonel des Zouaves (1997), and continued with the stage production of Retour Définitif et Durable de L'Être Aimé (The Final and Lasting Return of the Loved One) (2002). Their latest joint effort, has generated two new plays, and these with another performance of Le Colonel des Zouaves, played alternately throughout the Festival, are the fruit of three months in residence at the Chartreuse de Villeneuve lez Avignon.



Fairy queen
A post-modern fairy, electrified at the thought of meeting the American high priestess of Parisian and literary life before the war, is invited to lunch at Gertrude Stein's house. Ressuscitated for the occasion in her famous apartment in Rue Fleurus, the highest authority on “literary cubism” makes and breaks the reputations of her guests. For this excited young artist, it's the chance she's been waiting for, but there's also the risk of ending up in the Rejects Room. She's hyped-up in her blue-spotted black outfit, this buzzing Tinker Bell has concocted a “home-made performance” on love that is “quite unusual and non-sentimental.” Smart, cutting and stiff, the boss-lady Gertrude Stein roasts her over a spit, trotting out stock phrases as if she were reading a cookery book, while her secretary Alice B. Toklas misses no opportunity to cast scornful looks upon this upstart. But the fairy has taken off like a rocket: zooming away in an amusing twirl, she twists poetic art “like a radiator tap”, invents on-the-spot “neuronart” and speaks at the speed of sound and light. This magical character, the “fairy queen” communicates Olivier Cadiot's text at quite a rate: that of a jet engine accelerating sharply. This is also a story of a 21st Century woman who goes back to the 20th Century to find the answers to her questions. It's a trip in time, the exploration of a mysterious island, the island of our thoughts, choreographed by Ludovic Lagarde's syncopated directing.

stage direction Ludovic Lagarde
cast : Valérie Dashwood, Philippe Duquesne, Laurent Poitrenaux
dramaturg : Pierre Kuentz
lighting : Sébastien Michaud
costumes : Virginie et Jean-Jacques Weil
sound : David Bichindaritz
scenography : Ludovic Lagarde et Antoine Vasseur
assistant director : Sophie Gueydon

coproduction : Théâtre national de la Colline, Festival d'Avignon, Le Trident - Scène nationale de Cherbourg-Octeville, Centre national des Écritures du Spectacle - La Chartreuse de Villeneuve lez Avignon, Compagnie Ludovic Lagarde
avec l'aide : à la création du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication
avec le soutien : de la CCAS
texte publié : aux éditions P. O. L