A New Musical Theater Work
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A NEW MUSICAL THEATER WORK Directed by Macha Makeïeff Inspired by Lewis Carroll Opening at the Festival d’Avignon – La FabricA 14 to 22 July 2019 A NEW MUSICAL THEATER WORK 14 TO 22 JULY 2019 Directed by Macha Makeïeff inspired by Lewis Carroll Performed by Geoffrey Carey, Caroline Espargilière, Vanessa Fonte, Clément Griffault, Jan Peters, Geoffroy Rondeau et avec Rosemary Standley ! Images of Michka Wallon Adapted and devised by Macha Makeïeff and Gaëlle Hermant Staging, costumes and set design Macha Makeïeff Lights Jean Bellorini Sound Sébastien Trouvé Music Clément Griffault Hair & Makeup Cécile Kretschmar Magic Raphaël Navarro assisted by Arthur Chauvaudret and Antoine Terrieux Choreography Guillaume Siard Assistant Director Gaëlle Hermant Assistant Set Designer Clémence Bezat Assistant Costume Designer Claudine Crauland Iconography Clément Vial Stage Management André Neri English Language Consultant Camilla Barnes Pavillon Bosio Interns Élise Leleu, Xufei Liu, Céline Pagès Interns Pauline Adeline, Marianne Barrouillet, Juliette Boisseau, Elsa Markou PHD Film Researcher Elio Della Noce producer La Criée Théâtre national de Marseille coproducers Festival d’Avignon, Théâtre Gérard Philipe Centre dramatique national de Saint-Denis, Maison de la Culture d’Amiens – Pôle européen de création et de production in collaboration with Pavillon Bosio – École supérieure d’arts plastiques de la Ville de Monaco The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll, translated by Jacques Roubaud, published by Gallimard ON TOUR 19/20 27 september > 13 october 21 > 22 november 19 > 21 december Théâtre Gérard Philipe, Saint Denis Liberté Scéne nationale, Toulon TNN, Nice 17 > 19 october 27 november > 7 december 7 > 11 january 2020 Le Quai, Angers La Criée, Marseille Les Célestins, Lyon 13 > 14 november 11 > 13 december Le Grand R, La Roche-sur-Yon Scène Nationale Sud Aquitaine, Bayonne Titre en corps 20 Texte en corps 12 And you, who do you think it was? Well then, this genius, this Eccentric: was it Dodgson or Carroll? Charles or Lewis? Logic or nonsense? Investigation and mystery in Oxford! Speculation, gossip, and mockery of the author of Alice; pages torn from his diary, his notebooks burnt, every kind of denial; polite, awkward and sanctimonious Anglicans; hymns and inventories; pre-Raphaelite fantasies... But who was this son of a country parson – himself a deacon, a marginal yet a well-known man, a depressive tutor, polemicist and logician who invented the most extravagant tales? Isa Bowman the child-actress called him "Goosie", because he had the fussy charm of a bizarre old bachelor and because he wore grey gloves to hide the collodion stains on his hands. He was haunted by the enigma of childish innocence, a Victorian invention that gnawed at him, almost to the point of madness! He was obsessed by a sense of sin, a fantasy of English ladies and of outrageous old-child-friends; but also by strange talkative animals, by Humpty-Dumpty, the Cheshire Cat, the Snark, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, The Mad Hatter, the Dodo... he was obsessed by his Syzygy puzzles and all the phantasmagoria that start to dance when one sits too long on the parsonage bench… And over our heads hover Supernatural forms, chaotic and magical: fairies, ghosts and ectoplasm; souls caught on laboratory glass, the children of a melancholy God, vengeful prophets, and other miracles. Lewis Carroll, the nonsense poet, throws us out of our habitual patterns, leads us into conversations, through words written backwards and unsolved riddles… and we realise that, yes, life really is but a dream… Was Queen Victoria to blame for all this? Or was it Christ Church college, Oxford, and the Victorian morality imposed by an authoritarian, theologian father? For a very long time, whenever I read Lewis Carroll, I understood nothing… “Nonsense!” I thought… Was it because I found Alice unsympathetic and hard to grasp? Or was it because Charles-Lewis stammered from boyhood, was left-handed, had ten brothers and sisters, got bored in church, and didn’t get married? Or because of that matter of little girls and pictures, and because he wrote backwards and inverted the world…? But perhaps it was because of the sublime and musical mystery of the English language, because of a harmonium, and Martha’s great big feet, and a Salvation Army band… and because I really wanted to create a new show on account of George, my transparent brother… for you see, living life backwards is something I relate to, deeply. All this mechanical chaos, fiction, healthy nonsense, neuroses, dreams, joyful imagination, are extravagances to disarm Victorian conformism and domestic hypocrisy. A weapon against dangerous seriousness, a way of choosing the fairy-like rather than the so-called real. The language of Lewis must be sung, and it must be heard in all its glory. It is the language of a man who, despite the condemnation of the bishop of Oxford, enthusiastically attended pantomimes and theatre. Carroll’s language masters and transforms the world. Indeed he affirms: "what I tell you three times is true". And the actors who are to play Lewis vs Alice are timeless, gothic, and extravagant. They sing, dance, tell stories, and debate! They see visions and drink tea in the middle of nowhere. Utter fantasy! They celebrate a very British eccentricity, with a freedom of expression almost to the point of absurdity. A note from the Director, Macha Makeïeff Summer 2018 And you? Who are you? Titre en corps 20 Texte en corps 12 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson Lewis Carroll Lewis Carroll (whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was a British novelist, essayist, photographer and mathematician. His father was an Anglican priest, who had eleven children (of whom only two were married). All of the siblings were left-handed and seven of them (including Charles) suffered from a stutter. In 1851, he went up to Oxford University to read mathematics. Professor of mathematics at Christ Church College in Oxford, he was made a deacon in 1861 but did not go on to be ordained a priest. In 1856, he collaborated with The Train magazine, whose editor, Edmund Yates, chose for him, from among four pen-names proposed by Charles Dodgson, that of Lewis Carroll. He bought his first camera in London on March 18, 1856. A few days later in Oxford, he went to Dean Liddell's garden at Christ Church College, to photograph the cathedral. There he met the Dean’s three young daughters, including Alice Liddell, his future inspiration, and took them as his photographic models. He soon became an expert photographer, and before long, very well known. In 1880, he abruptly abandoned photography. "The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland" (1866) was originally written to entertain Alice Liddell and her two sisters, daughters of the Dean of Christ Church. Alice's adventures "Through the Looking Glass" appeared in 1872, and "The Hunting of the Snark," a long parody poem, was published in 1876. All were illustrated by John Tenniel. "Sylvie and Bruno" was published in 1889: in this novel, Carroll explored almost every possible blend of humour and nonsense, while simultaneously covering his favourite themes: logic and its paradoxes, the gap between signified and signifiers. Under his real name, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, he published works of algebra and mathematical logic, as well as collections of riddles and verbal games. Titre en corps 20 Texte en corps 12 Macha Makeïeff Macha Makeïeff, author, director and visual artist, is the Director of La Criée, Théâtre National de Marseille. Macha Makeïeff read literature at the Sorbonne, and art history at both the Art Institute of Paris and the Marseille Conservatoire. Her first directing job was for Antoine Vitez. Macha Makeïeff, together with the actor-director Jérôme Deschamps, has staged over twenty shows in France and internationally. Together they founded “Les Films de mon Oncle”, dedicated to promoting Jacques Tati’s works. They directed Les Deschiens for Canal +. Macha Makeïeff was both the curator and scenographer for a Jacques Tati retrospective exhibition at the Cinémathèque Française. She has exhibited her own work at the Museum of Decorative Arts, and in museums throughout France. In 2014 she created the exhibition Péché Mignon, a joyful performance, which premiered at the Cartier Foundation and went on to tour. At La Criée in Marseille, Macha Makeïeff has staged Les Apaches, Ali Baba, Lumières d’Odessa by Philippe Fenwick, Trissotin ou Les Femmes Savantes by Molière, Les Âmes offensées #1 (Les Inuit) et #2 (Les Soussou) #3 (Les Massaï) based on the notebooks of the ethnologist Philippe Geslin; her latest new work is La Fuite! (Flight!) by Mikhail Bulgakov, of which a film treatment has been made. Macha Makeïeff designs the sets and costumes of her productions. She designed costumes for The Good Person of Szechwan, Kroum, Karamazov and Erismena, Rodelinda, Jean Bellorini's Un Instant, Bouvard et Pécuchet by Jérôme Deschamps, Sarah Bernhardt Fan Club by Juliette Deschamps in Perm, Russia. She has also directed several operas: Offenbach’s The Bandits, and Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio at the Festival d’Aix en Provence; Mozart Short Cuts at the GTP; Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow, Moscow, Cheryomushki by Dmitri Shostakovich at the Opera de Lyon; La Calisto by Francesco Cavalli, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées; at the Opéra Comique, Paris, L’Étoile by Emmanuel Chabrier, and Zampa by Hérold; Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias (The Breasts of Tiresias) at the Opera de Lyon; Macha Makeïeff has collaborated with John Eliott Gardiner, William Christie, Louis Langrée, Christophe Rousset... Titre en corps 20 Texte en corps 12 Macha Makeïeff is published by Les Editions du Chêne, Séguier, Seuil and Actes Sud. She directed a theatre company, was artistic director of the Théâtre de Nîmes, and collaborated in the founding of Pavillon Bosio, a school of art and scenography.