In 1988, Hubert Colas created the Diphtong Compagnie after having already acted and written plays himself. The first plays he directed were, Temporairement Epuisé, Nomades and Visages but he also took on the challenge of staging other writers such as Witold Gombrowicz, Sarah Kane or Christine Angot. Whether in his writing work or in his choices as a director, he gives precedence to the power of language, a language which must be the source of his actors' energy, to combat the sleepiness and solitude that are ready to pounce on people on the path of life. Not to die before being really dead, being open about feelings, even those we would like to hide, being in a state of movement and not of passivity, not being afraid of confrontation, not hiding one's contradictions, these are Hubert Colas' aims. In 2000, he and Jean-Marc Montera started working together, and founded a multi-disciplinary centre in Marseilles called montevidéo, for the creation and production of contemporary writing and music. Hubert Colas presented La Croix des Oiseaux at the Avignon Festival in 1996.
Inexhaustible Hamlet... Since 1600, this play has been performed on stages all over the world and there is not one generation of actors or directors who have not asked themselves about the mysteries of this universal hero, who have not invested time and effort in investigating this emblematic work. The fascination that this play holds has led to it being altered, truncated and manipulated many times. Hubert Colas wanted it to be heard in its entirety, not side-stepping any of its complexities, its questions, its hidden secrets. He therefore gives all the protagonists time on stage so they can take part in the slow poisoning which gradually takes over their bodies, heads and heart. The play is staged within a modular set which sometimes describes reality, sometimes imagination and it is directed entirely according to the text Shakespeare left us and which reacts on stage like a combustible fuel fanning the action and driving the bodies. This Hamlet is one who burns on stage, in his search for truth and in finding nothing but lies. It is a political Hamlet who never forgets where he comes from, into which dynasty he was born, nor the despotic power which he may well carry himself. This is a Hamlet who confronts himself and takes on all the other characters; who receives as much as he gives and provokes as much as he is provoked. This is a Hamlet of evidence, not of examination, and who acts as a beacon to those around him, forcing them to remove their masks, relentlessly denouncing falsehood. Agitated when thoughts are rushing around in his head, when he perceives deceit, nevertheless he is astonishingly tranquil when he declares his truth and predicts his fate. All the nuances of the tragic ambiguity of every thinking and loving being are displayed in a series of scenes and in meetings between characters. They take us out of the shadow into light, from black to white. Playing on its theatricality, with which he sometimes has much fun with his actors, Hubert Colas will have us understand that, on a stage, only words are real and that the articifices of performance should not distance them from their addressees, on the contrary, they should make them all the more clear.
Distribution
direction and scenography : Hubert Colas
cast : Patrick Albenque, Geoffrey Carey, Claire Delaporte, Rojas Patricia, Garcia Nicolas Guimbard, Mireille Herbstmeyer, Pierre Laneyrie, Boris Lémant, Isabelle Mouchard, Thierry Raynaud, Frédéric Schulz-Richard, Xavier Tavera, Cyril Texier, Manuel Vallade
Assistant direction : Sophie Nardone
Costumes : Cidalia Da Costa
lighting : Encaustic
Video : Patrick Laffont
musical creation : Jean-Marc Montera
Music : Arvo Pärt, Aphex Twin
Make-up : Sophie Niesseron
Traduction and adaptation : Hubert Colas
With the artistic collaboration of : Alain Gautré who directed a work about the clown
Production
En compagnie : de l'Adami
Production : Diphtong Cie, La Criée - Théâtre national de Marseille, La Halle aux Grains - Scène nationale de Blois, Théâtre des Salins - Scène nationale de Martigues
Avec la participation artistique : du Jeune Théâtre National
Avec le soutien : de montévidéo, de l'Alliance Française de La Paz, de l'Ambassade de France en Bolivie, d'Air France et de la Spedidam