Vincent Macaigne wants to be alive, today, at any cost. Alive to fight the gratuitousness of acts that ride on fleeting crazes and on the dull consensus that bog us down in the acceptance of the unacceptable. In choosing to work on Shakespeare's Hamlet, but also on the original tale from a 13th-century Danish chronicle, he attempts to fathom the mysteries of this mythic figure by creating an open-minded dialogue with this young prince, considered here an artist who wishes to act on the world. No romantic mists, no mysterious ghosts, no invasive madness as the only key to understand the Hamlet character. For the young director, the complexity of the work and the hero must in no way be smoothed out, concealed or even reduced to a few famous monologues. Therefore it is the flesh, more than the representation of ideas and intentions, that will be showed on the Cloître des Carmes stage; the suffering flesh that causes the violent gesture of the man who goes as far as sacrificing himself. The grotesque dimension of exaggerated situations will also have its place since this dimension is full of innocence and truth. Laying claim to his freedom as an artist in order to conceive his own vision of Hamlet, borrowing from all the authors encountered through his readings, Vincent Macaigne composes, with his actors, a great dramatic poem in which every sentence must be heard in its entirety, its strength, but also its repercussions. The words, uttered rather than pronounced, are razor-sharp weapons that must cut to the heart those who hear them. Because the point is not to entertain, but to give an account of a state of anger. The anger of children who are victims of the heritage of their ancestors, the ire of those who dread adulthood that they consider as the betrayal of one's commitments and dreams. Torn between hope and despair, Au moins j'aurai laissé un beau cadavre is a new, brutal and impolite fable, behind which appears an apposite pamphlet, thoroughly questioning the state of theatre art in this early 21st century.
It was in the early part of the 17th century that Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote and staged The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. He took his inspiration from a text by François de Belleforest published in 1576, himself basing his work on a 13th-century Danish chronicle, La Gesta Danorum, due to the monk and writer Saxo Grammaticus. It is certainly the most mysterious play written by the brilliant English playwright and, since the beginning of the 19th century, the most often performed.
JFP
Distribution
adaptation, direction and visual conception Vincent Macaigne
scenography Benjamin Hautin, Vincent Macaigne, Julien Peissel
accessories Lucie Basclet
lighting Kelig Le Bars
sound Loïc Le Roux
assistant Marie Ben Bachir
with Samuel Achache, Laure Calamy, Jean-Charles Clichet, Julie Lesgages, Emmanuel Matte, Rodolphe Poulain, Pascal Rénéric, Sylvain Sounier
Production
production Festival d'Avignon
coproduction Théâtre national de Chaillot (Paris), MC2: Grenoble, Cen t re dramatique national Orléans/Loiret/Centre, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, La Filature Scène nationale-Mulhouse, le phénix scène nationale Valenciennes, Compagnie Friche 22.66, L'Hippodrome-Scène nationale de Douai
action financée par la région Île-de-France
avec le soutien de la Direction régionale des Affaires culturelles d'Île-de-France et de la Spedidam
avec la participation artistique du Jeune Théâtre national
Par son soutien, l'Adami aide le Festival d'Avignon à s'engager sur des coproductions.