We are in 1430, in the “autumn” of the Middle Ages, just before the New World was discovered. Europe was in the midst of a crisis, the black death had stuck again, the war between France and England dragged on to become the Hundred Years War, famines spread. Some people thought that the apocalypse was nearing. The practice of witchcraft, linked to the resurgence of superstitions, grew and generated an extremely violent struggle between the Catholic Church and various heresies. In the midst of this confusion, two astonishing figures whose story would come down through the centuries emerged in France: a 17-year-old peasant woman, Joan of Arc, and one of the richest aristocrats in France, Gilles de Rais. The crossed destinies of these two tragic heroes are at the heart of the show imagined by the director Guy Cassiers and the writer Tom Lanoye. Together, they have opened a new chapter in their theatre analysis of the history of Europe by attempting today to make the 21st century “show through” via a story from the 15th century. More than the differences, it was the similarities between the itineraries of Joan and de Gilles, who met each other by the randomness of history during the siege of Orléans, which interested Tom Lanoye. Two lives that disturbed the institutions of the period, dark and tormented, both of which ended on the stake, Joan condemned for witchcraft and de Gilles for the murder of dozens of children. Apart from the historic events that serve as the frame of this theatre narrative, it is the analysis of the mechanisms agitating the legal and religious apparatuses – the court and the Church that here are one and the same –, that innervates this work. In Avignon, the play will be presented in one of the most emblematic places of ecclesiastical power. It is inside the walls of the Cour d\'honneur, but also in the discreet alcoves of the Palais des papes that Guy Cassiers, as a magician of video images, will orchestrate this story of a woman, a man and powers. Bathed in a polyphonic music sung a cappella by the nine members of the Collegium Vocale of Ghent, carried by flawless actors, it is a captivating tragedy that comes to life before our eyes. A tragedy with the blended odour of blood and roses.
A novelist, poet, essayist, chronicler and playwright, Tom Lanoye is one of the most talented Flemish artists of his generation. It was by adapting Shakespeare's historic dramas in a single play for the director Luk Perceval in 2000 that he became known. It was his collaboration however with Guy Cassiers that durably anchored him in the European theatre landscape. After Mefisto for ever, inspired by Klaus Mann's novel Mephisto, then Atropa, La Vengenance de la paix, a play he wrote based on the tragedies of Euripides and Aeschylus on the Trojan War, but also texts by George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Curzio Malaparte, Tom Lanoye collaborated for the third time with the director of the Toneelhuis on a text that brings together two figures that everything seems to separate: Joan of Arc and Gilles de Rais. His most recent novel, La Langue de ma mère has just been published in French.
JFP
Distribution
director Guy Cassiers
text Tom Lanoye
dramaturg Erwin Jans
music Dominique Pauwels
scenography Guy Cassiers, Enrico Bagnoli, Ief Spincemaille vidéo Ief Spincemaille
lighting Enrico Bagnoli
sound Diederik De Cock
costumes Tim Van Steenbergen
direction and musical repetition Frank Agsteribbe
with Katelijne Damen, Stefaan Degand, Abke Haring, Han Kerckhoffs, Johan Leysen, Johan Van Assche, Jos Verbist
and Collegium Vocale Gent singers Sylvia Broeckaert, João Cabral, Jonathan De Ceuster, Emilie De Voght, Stefan Drexlmeier, Joachim Höchbauer, Vincent Lesage, Katherine Nicholson, Louise Wayman
Production
production Toneelhuis
coproduction Festival d'Avignon, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, De Tijd (Anvers), Collegium Vocale Gent (Gand), deSingel (Anvers)
avec le soutien des Autorités flamandes