L'Acte inconnu

Valère Novarina invites us to the Pope's Palace Courtyard of Honour for a new journey into the universe of language, a journey to the source of our language devoured by voracious and generous actors who use their bodies to make words dance on the theatre stage. Is it a funfair show, or is it the circus, a ballet, a classical tragedy, a comedy, a drama, music-hall, attractions, puppets? It's all of those things rolled into one because any form is useful for conveying to the audience that language is not just a string of words but one of the foundations of our “living together-ness”, where we have to recognise ourselves and rediscover ourselves or burst, plunge into crisis or collapse. It is a language which retraces its origins, which revives dialectical speech, which enriches the present with the treasures of the past. The characters in L'Acte Inconnu (The Unknown Act), whose names are Raymond de la Matière, Irma Grammatica, Le Déséquilibriste, La Machine à faire l'Homme, Jean Terrier, L'Ouvrier du Drame along with their travel companions, are going to spring from courtyard to garden and reveal their wish to stand up straight, be assertive, funny – in a word, “alive”, in this “spoken landscape” which is exposed in four ballet movements and develops in the empty space where, more than in any other place, the spoken word explodes and the body is dissected. Valère Novarina's work is made out of falling, breaking, out of deconstruction and reconstruction, one after the other, like one big word puzzle, like an almost childish game which should be approached freely, without preconceived ideas, without certitude. The stage becomes a place for playful pleasure, a place where unfamiliar spaces are opened to bodies which speak through words and gestures, a place where the language delivered is a language heard and shared.

Texte, mise en scène et peintures Valère Novarina
Avec Michel Baudinat, Manuel Lelièvre, Olivier Martin-Salvan, Dominique Parent, Dominique Pinon, Myrto Procopiou, Agnès Sourdillon, Véronique Vella (sociétaire de la Comédie-Française), Léopold von Verschuer, Valérie Vinci
Un musicien sur scène Christian Paccoud
Un ouvrier du drame Richard Pierre
Scénographie Philippe Marioge
Collaboration à la mise en scène Céline Schaeffer
Lumières Joël Hourbeigt
Costumes Renato Bianchi
Musiques Christian Paccoud, Scardanelli (cinq chansons composées par: Christian Paccoud)
Dramaturgie Pascal Omhovère, Roséliane Goldstein
Administration Minijy: Clara Rousseau, Séverine Péan
Texte à paraître aux Éditions P.O.L en juillet 2007

Coproduction Festival d'Avignon, Théâtre national de la Colline, Centre dramatique national Orléans-Loiret-Centre, Théâtre national populaire Villeurbanne, La rose des vents-Scène nationale de Lille Métropole-Villeneuve d'Ascq
Avec le soutien de la Direction de la musique, de la danse, du théâtre et des spectacles du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, de la Région Île-de-France et de l'Association Beaumarchais
Le Festival d'Avignon reçoit le soutien de l'Adami pour la production
Le spectacle sera diffusé en direct sur ARTE le 11 juillet à 22h