Ciels

by Wajdi Mouawad

  • Theatre
  • Show
The 2009 archive

Wajdi Mouawad

Montréal / Beyrouth / Chambéry / Created in 2009

Ciels © Christophe Raynaud de Lage / Festival d'Avignon

Presentation

Fourth part of the quartet
"Le Sang des promesses" (the Blood of Promises)

Talking about the world, unwinding it, unfolding it still and always, like a fresco. Anchoring yourself once again in history and in stories, in the collective and the personal, to create a theatre of here and now. If the final movement of Wajdi Mouawad's Avignon quartet is part of this continuity, it rings nonetheless like a counterpoint to the three preceding works, to really make people hear that the world can also get lost in looking for too much meaning, in wanting at any cost to recover memory, in constantly running after the infinite. Whether it concerns content or form, it is a new search that the author and director begins, shutting up his characters in a unique, closed, stifling setting where the world's noises only enter through an ultra-sophisticated wiretapping system that a major power has made available to them to attempt to prevent a gigantic terrorist attack. A genuine Tower of Babel where all languages mix, this high-security place becomes the prison of these “listeners” who can only communicate with their families through a video-conference system. In a new scenography that will involve the audience, it is an equally new writing that Wajdi Mouawad will propose. A polyphonic writing that will be as much heard as seen since the texts, images and sounds blend into each other to create a poetry of daily life, unlike Littoral, Scorched and Forests, which made the relationship between the writing and the actor the essential foundation of the performance. We are therefore invited to undergo a theatrical experience at the very heart of a terrifying enigma, at the very heart of this ultra-contemporary world that can cause us distress and that the bracing theatre of Wajdi Mouawad, located as close as possible to reality and as far as possible from realism, makes fascinating. JFP

Distribution

Light meals and beverages available at the site
The seats, incorporated into the décor, are not very comfortable
Text and direction: Wajdi Mouawad
Dramaturgy: Charlotte Farcet
direction assistance: Alain Roy
artistic advice: François Ismert
artistic superviser: Pierre Ziadé
Scenography: Emmanuel Clolus
Music: Michel F Côté
Lighting: Philippe Berthomé
Sound: Michel Maurer
Costumes: Isabelle Larivière
video realisation: Dominique Daviet
video creation: Adrien Mondot
with: John Arnold, Georges Bigot, Valérie Blanchon, Olivier Constant, Stanislas Nordey and on the video Gabriel Arcand, Victor Desjardins
production Anne Lorraine Vigouroux (France) Maryse Beauchesne (Quebec)
Text published by éditions Actes Sud-Papiers (mid-July)

Production

Production: Au Carré de l'Hypoténuse et Abé Carré Cé Carré
Production déléguée: Espace Malraux, Scène nationale de Chambéry et de la Savoie dont Wajdi Mouawad est artiste associé
Coproduction: Théâtre français/Centre national des Arts d'Ottawa, le Grand T Scène conventionnée de Loire-Atlantique, Célestins Théâtre de Lyon, Théâtre National de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, MC2 Grenoble, la Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand.
avec le soutien du Ministère des Relations internationales du Québec, du Service de Coopération et d'Action culturelle du Consulat général de France à Québec, de la Région Rhône-Alpes et de Hexagone Scène nationale de Meylan

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