After playing Büchner's Danton, Harlequin in Marivaux' La Double Inconstance, Patrick Pineau began a long-working relationship with Georges Lavaudant when the latter was co-director of the French National Theatre in Villurbanne (in south-east France). That was in 1989 when he played the main role in Féroé, La Nuit by Michel Deutsch. As far as Patrick Pineau is concerned, collective work is more important than the individual, the instinctive pleasure of acting is inseparable from the spirit of the troupe. Today, and since 1997, he has been part of the Troupe de l'Odéon, and has performed recently in the Feydeau play, Un fil à la Patte (A Fly in the Ointment - 2001), Büchner's Death of Danton (2002) and The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov (2004). Also at the Théâtre de l'Odéon, he directed the Valletti play, Monsieur Armand dit Garrincha, (2001) and Gorki's Les Barbares (2003). Patrick Pineau cannot be dissociated from his gang, including actor Éric Elmosino, with whom he has been sharing his theatrical adventures for twenty years.
A poet enters the Courtyard. A vagabond from the Norwegian countryside, an accidental farmer who leads everyone up the garden path, telling them and himself stories, is on familiar terms with the mountain trolls, seduces women and then shies away, makes his mother scream out of love and anger. His name: Peer Gynt. His creator: Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), master of deep insight into the human soul and of irony, who delved into Norwegian folk tales to extract the essence of this exceptional dramatic poem (1867). His home: a farm in the valley of Gudbrandsdal. His mission: to be himself, at any price. With the quest for the self as his compass, this Rimbaud of the fjords searches for the “I” within distraction, in the infinite realm of geographic and mental spaces which he multiplies at will. From Morocco to Egypt, from impassive lakes to the shores of the Dead Sea, from shipping owner to prophet, from citizen to master of the world, from emperor to religious scholar, Peer Gynt tells the stories of the peregrinations of an adventurer of the world. A log cabin, a few objects, a sailing mast in a manège under the sky in lieu of the circus tent to create a painting composed of thirty-eight tableaux. A troupe of actors leads the audience in the most beautiful and perilous of adventures - a man setting off in search of himself. Patrick Pineau's fascination for Peer Gynt, and the desire to cast Éric Elmosnino in the title role, led him to stage this endless dream, this extraordinary poem.
Distribution
stage direction Patrick Pineau
cast : Bouzid Allam, Gilles Arbona, Baya Belal, Nicolas Bonnefoy, Frédéric Borie, Hervé Briaux, Jean-Michel Cannone, Laurence Cordier, Éric Elmosnino, Aline Le Berre, Laurent Manzoni, Christelle Martin, Mathias Mégard, Cendrine Orcier, Fabien Orcier, Annie Perret, Julie Pouillon, Marie Trystram
translation : François Regnault
dramaturg : Eugène Durif
scenography : Sylvie Orcier, en collaboration avec Hakim Mouhous
costumes : Brigitte Tribouilloy
sound : Jean-Philippe François
lighting : Marie Nicolas
make-up : Sylvie Cailler
hair styling : Sylvie Cailler, Jocelyne Milazzo
masks : Coralie Leguevaque
assistant director : Anne Soisson
Production
coproduction: Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, Festival d'Avignon, Région Haute-Normandie - Théâtre en région, La Filature - Scène nationale de Mulhouse, Centre dramatique national de Normandie - Comédie de Caen, Scène nationale Evreux Louviers
avec le soutien :de la Région Île-de-France et de la ville d'Evreux
avec l'aide :du Théâtre Nanterre Amandiers - Centre dramatique national