FRANK CASTORF Bajazet En Considérant Le Théâtre Et La Peste D’Après JEAN RACINE Et ANTONIN ARTAUD

FRANK CASTORF Bajazet En considérant Le théâtre et la peste d’après JEAN RACINE et ANTONIN ARTAUD

FRANK CASTORF Bajazet Considering The Theater and the Plague RACINE/ARTAUD

THÉÂTRE VIDY LES THÉÂTRES MC93 LAUSANNE AIX-EN-PROVENCE AVEC LE FESTIVAL D’AUTOMNE À PARIS Du 30 octobre au 10 novembre Du 20 au 22 novembre Du 5 au 14 décembre FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET

CONTACTS GRAND THÉÂTRE DE PROVENCE/LES THÉÂTRES DIRECTION : DOMINIQUE BLUZET

THÉÂTRE VIDY-LAUSANNE PRESS : EMMANUELLE CANCE DIRECTION: [email protected]

VINCENT BAUDRILLER +33 (0)4 91 24 35 24 / +33 (0)6 25 85 48 40 MARIE LANZAFAME PRODUCTION: [email protected]

DIRECTOR OF ARTISTIC AND +33 (0)4 42 91 69 51 / +33 (0)6 64 76 91 08 INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS CAROLINE BARNEAUD [email protected] *EXTRAPÔLE RÉGION SUD T +41 (0)21 619 45 44 With the creation of ExtraPôle, the Région SUD Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur is demonstrating its confi- TECHNICS: dence in the arts sector and its ability to build synergies TECHNICAL DIRECTION in the service of artists and their projects. ExtraPôle CHRISTIAN WILMART / SAMUEL MARCHINA helps extend the reach and influence of our region, [email protected] reflecting its artistic and cultural vibrancy. T +41 (0)21 619 45 16 / 81 Producing major works and disseminating them widely, encouraging their performance to a broad audience in PRESS: the region, bringing together stakeholders in a collabo- rative effort : these are the objectives that have been DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCES AND COMMUNICATION established by seven production companies, the Friche ASTRID LAVANDEROS la Belle de Mai, and the Région SUD. [email protected] La Criée, the Théâtre National de Nice, Les Théâtres, the T +41 (0)21 619 45 74 Festival d’Avignon, the Festival de Marseille, the Scène M +41 (0)79 949 46 93 Nationale Liberté-Châteauvallon, and Anthéa have chosen to become part of a collective group developing COMMUNICATION ASSISTANT joint artistic projects. PAULINE AMEZ-DROZ Eleven shows have been produced since June 2017, [email protected] indicating the shared determination and commitment of T +41 (0)21 619 45 21 each of the partners. 575 performances have been given in the region, in France, and internationally. Half of this co-production platform was financed by the Région SUD and the other half by the seven partner co-producers, led by the Friche la Belle de Mai – a new MC93 way of publicly funding artistic creation. The distribution approach is built into the programme from the very beginning. Moreover, the Région SUD supports DIRECTION : distribution by reducing fees for co-produced shows HORTENSE ARCHAMBAULT that are on tour.

PRODUCTION :

DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION MC93 CLAIRE ROUSSARIE PEPS [email protected] PEPS stands for the Plateforme Européenne de Produc- +33 1 41 60 72 77 tion Scénique [European Platform for Stage Produc- tions], which groups together the Théâtre Vidy- Lausanne, Bonlieu, Scène Nationale d’Annecy, Théâtre Saint-Gervais Genève, and Malraux Scène Nationale Chambéry under the framework of the European Pro- gramme of Cross-Border Cooperation Interreg France- Suisse 2014-2020, supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

DOCUMENTATION AND HD PICTURES To download on SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE MOMENTS https://vidy.ch/en/bajazet-considering- the-theatre-and-the-plague (page of the show, tab « Press and pro ») FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 3

Creation BAJAZET at Vidy

CONSIDERING THE THEATER AND THE PLAGUE RACINE/ARTAUD

Direction and adaptation: Frank Castorf

Scenography: Aleksandar Denic

Costumes: Adriana Braga Peretzki

Video: Andreas Deinert

Music: William Minke

Light: Lothar Baumgarte

Assistant director: Hanna Lasserre and Camille Logoz, Camille Roduit

Text: Jean Racine, Antonin Artaud and additional quotes from Blaise Pascal and Fiodor Dostoïevski

With: Jeanne Balibar Jean-Damien Barbin Claire Sermonne Mounir Margoum Adama Diop Andreas Deinert (video) Bajazet Production: on tour Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne 30.10-10.11.19 Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne (CH) MC93 - Maison de la Culture de Seine St-Denis 20-22.11.19 Grand Théâtre de Provence, Coproduction: Aix-en-Provence (FR) ExtraPôle Région SUD* et le Grand Théâtre de Pro- 28-29.11.19 TANDEM scène nationale, Douai (FR) vence avec le soutien de la Friche Belle de Mai - Festi- 4-8.12.19, MC93, Bobigny (FR) dans le cadre val d’Automne à Paris - Théâtre National de Strasbourg 10-14.12.19 du Festival d’Automne à Paris - Maillon, Théâtre de Strasbourg, scène européenne Teatros del Canal, Madrid (ES) - TANDEM Scène nationale, Douai - Bonlieu, Scène na- 17-18.01.20 tionale Annecy -TNA / Teatro Nacional Argentino, Teatro 12-13.02.20 La Comédie de Valence (FR) Cervantes - Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione 19-21.02.20 Bonlieu scène nationale, Annecy (FR)

With the production, technical, communication, and administra- 1.03.20 Vie Festival - Teatro Storchi Modena, ERT (IT) tion teams at the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne 12-13.06.20 [ REPORTÉ] Teatro Municipal do Porto This show is supported by the PEPS project in the frame (PT) of the european program, Interreg France-Suisse (2014- 19-20.06.20 [ REPORTÉ] Teatro Nacional Donna Maria 2020). II, Lisbonne (PT) Creation 30th October 2019 at Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne 18-19.11.20 Le Quartz Scène nationale de Brest (FR) 17-21.02.21 Théâtre National de Strasbourg / Maillon Théâtre de Strasbourg - Scène Européenne (FR)

FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 4 INTRODUCTION

Now all is at an end; my perfidy, My unjust doubts, my fatal jealousy, Have brought me to this pass: I realise ‘Twas my crime that caused Bajazet’s demise. Cruel destiny, are you so unforgiving That I, condemned, alas! to go on living, Must bear, to crown my grief, the endless shame That for my lover’s death I am to blame? Yes, my dear prince, your death is due to me, Not Roxane’s rage nor Amurat’s decree. Ah! for what purpose did I love you so? Jean Racine, Bajazet, 1672

Life consists of burning up questions. I cannot conceive of work that is detached from life. [...] We must get rid of the Mind, just as we must get rid of literature. I say that the Mind and life communicate on all levels. I would like to write a Book which would drive men mad, which would be like an open door leading them where they would never have consented to go, in short, a door that opens onto reality. Antonin Artaud, The Umbilicus of Limbo, 1925

Frank Castorf, who for many years was the director of the renowned Volksbühne in Berlin, has now set his sights on producing Bajazet by Racine, with a team of French performers including Jeanne Balibar. Castorf has been a provocative figure in German theatre for over forty years, famous for his directing of actors at the intersecting point between grotesque and fierce intensity, his early use of video that explored its truly dramatic energy, and his dizzying adaptations of novels – especially by Dostoyevsky, with whom he shares a taste for keen social analysis, lucid and raw, borne by the energy of the desperate. His theatre is utterly committed to freely acting and thinking; it doesn’t avoid contradiction, but it totally rejects any compromise in principles.

For the first time, and in French, he is adapting a work by Racine, a dramatist that few non- Francophone artists have previously attempted. In Racine, Castorf recognises the foundation of his own theatre – the conviction that purity does not exist and that the tragedy of existence is born from the collusion between private passion and power, and between desire and contingent propositions. But they also share a belief in the power of the spoken word, theatre’s very anchor, which Racine’s heroes and heroines use to break apart the social settings that prevent them from fulfilling their desires – sexual desire and a desire for freedom – a demanding and radical spoken word, fatal if needs be. Castorf relates Racine to Artaud, another poet of vital immoderation, who uses words to extricate himself from what his birth, his body and his environment have imposed on him, in order to be reborn as himself. So from within the confines of the Sultan of Constantinople’s seraglio in Bajazet, Castorf brings together two major French poets and awakens our demons.

ERIC VAUTRIN DRAMATURG AT THE THÉÂTRE VIDY-LAUSANNE FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 5 VISIONS, PROPHECIES AND PROCLAMATIONS : HOW RACINE AND ARTAUD USE THE SPOKEN WORD

And what the theatre can still take over from speech are its possibilities for extension beyond words, for development in space, for dissociative and vibratory action upon the sensibility. Antonin Artaud, The Theatre and Its Double

WORDS THAT DEFY CONTINGENCY The words of the characters in Racine’s tragedies, or of Artaud the poet, abound with visions, oracles and incantations. It is through the spoken word that is visionary, full of imagery and projected onto the future, that Artaud and Racine’s characters release their tragic power: their words bring them closer to a new and acute awareness of existence and create the possibility of freedom – even if this means death for Racine and rebirth for Artaud. Intransigent and necessary words, firmly anchored in the incandescent night of the body, defy contingency and compromise. They are the opportunity for the soul to be revealed to itself and to others. These incantations become acts more powerful than any action, as they call on the innermost power of the soul, demanding pure and absolute freedom.

RACINE AND THE DEADLY SPOKEN WORD One of Racine’s most singular inventions is the transformation of the tragic word – which traditionally expresses the divine and supernatural voice that dismantles human order – into power that belongs to the characters, imparted though their spoken words and that acts through them: in Bajazet, the three deaths are caused by words that reveal their deepest desires and simultaneously cause death.

ARTAUD AND BECOMING ONESELF Just as Bajazet, Roxane and Atalide truly become themselves through the power of the spoken word, so too does Artaud le Momo through his proclamations. The incantatory poetry of Artaud is an attempt to lift the spell created by rites, codes and grammar, which frame, exploit and restrict life’s power. It is also a wish to merge the artistic gesture with life lived to the fullest – which for Artaud occurs through a reinvention of reality by the poet and therefore by language, just as it does for Racine’s characters. Thus liberated from rules and from any desire for control, the spoken word becomes the means for the soul to detach itself from ‘father and mother’, causing the ‘present body to fly into pieces’, setting free ‘a new body’.

REINVENTING REALITY THROUGH THE SPOKEN WORD More than simply playwrights that provide themes to be depicted, Castorf finds in Racine and Artaud, as he did previously with Goethe and Dostoyevsky, allies and brothers, united in their shared search for a living art that is powerful and determined, undoing artistic ‘good manners’ and bland fiction in order to contemplate reality through art. Like Castorf, Racine and Artaud contrasted self-evident facts and worldly habits with the soul’s innermost power, bringing about a profound aesthetic renewal. With these texts from two of the most important French poets, and by challenging contingencies and compromises, and making art, at the very moment of its creation, a space for the artist’s reinvention of reality rather than simply a projection of fantasy or narrative, Castorf is exploring a new repertoire, all the while continuing the joyous path of his deconstructive body of work begun over 40 years ago.

ERIC VAUTRIN DRAMATURG AT THE THÉÂTRE VIDY-LAUSANNE FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 6 PICTURES

Who am I? Where do I come from? I am Antonin Artaud and if I say it as I know how to say it immediately you will see my present body fly into pieces and under ten thousand notorious aspects a new body will be assembled in which you will never again be able to forget me.

Antonin Artaud, Who am I ? Post-scriptum from To Have Done with the Judgment of God, 1947 FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 8 OFF STAGE ACTIVITIES AT VIDY

IN THE BOOKSTORE — Frank Raddatz (dir.), République Castorf - La Volksbühne de Berlin depuis 1992 - Entretiens, trans. F. Weigand et L. Muhleisen (Paris : L’Arche 2017) — Thomas Aurin, 1992-2017 Volksbühne am Rosa-LuxemburgPlatz Photoalbum (Berlin : Alexander Verlag, 2018) — Guy Cherqui et David Verdier (dir.), CASTORF / WAGNER, der Ring des Nibelungen 2013- 2017 (La Pommerie Éditions, 2019) — Jean Racine, Bajazet — Roland Barthes, Sur Racine — Antonin Artaud, Le Théâtre et son double — Antonin Artaud, Œuvres, Quarto Gallimard CASTORF-MACHINE EXHIBITION Designed to accompany the show while on tour, this exhibition presents Frank Castorf’s body of work through an essay, photographs, posters, and video excerpts. With one biography, eight chapters, and an epilogue on the history of the Volksbühne, it gives a broad aesthetic and political overview of the theatre (texts, history, spaces, actors, conflicts, etc.), illustrated with various documents on performances during the Volksbühne period. Concept and texts : Eric Vautrin Photographs : Thomas Aurin

Eric Vautrin is the playwright at the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne and is a former university academic. Thomas Aurin (1963) is a freelance theatre photographer. He worked at the Berlin Volksbühne from 1992 to 2017.

A summary of the exhibition : In its full version : - 45 aluminium-mounted images, with hanging frame on the back (30x45 cm) provided - 35 black-and-white A2 pages, 80g paper (text and facsimile of posters) to be printed - 12 black-and-white A4 pages, 80g paper (captions and quotes) to be printed - 4 edited video excerpts (between 15 and 20 minutes each) provided, on 4 monitors (or fewer) At Vidy, it was installed along 16 metres with a height of 2.5 metres. The images and videos are organised so as to illustrate the eight chapters of text (one screen for two chapters). The videos can be grouped together on one screen. The exhibition can be adapted by removing images or text pages. A suggested alternative display would include 20 images, 1 screen, 17 A2 pages, and 9 A4 pages. NB : the exhibition text can be downloaded on vidy.ch/castorf-machine. Visitors can access the exhibition via a QR code. The exhibition was produced by the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne in partnership with the Goethe-Institut, PEPS (Plateforme Européenne de Production Scénique Annecy-Chambéry-Genève-Lausanne funded by the European Programme of Cross-Border Cooperation Interreg), MC93 - Maison de la Culture de Seine St-Denis and the Festival d’Automne in Paris, ExtraPôle Région SUD, and the Grand Théâtre de Provence, with the support of the Friche Belle de Mai. SCREENING The award-winning documentary film Partisan - Volksbühne 1992 bis 2017, by Lutz Pehnert, Matthias Hlert, and Adama Ulrich, can also be screened. (The producer requests a flat-rate payment for public screenings). Presentation, trailers, and contact : http://www.solofilmproduktion.de/blog/partisan

For any questions: Eric Vautrin, playwright at Vidy-Lausanne +41 21 619 45 51 — [email protected] FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 9

TEASER - short version - full version INTERVIEWS WITH ARTISTS Bajazet by Jean-Damien Barbin - episode 1 - episode 2 - episode 3

Bajazet by Jeanne Balibar and Claire Sermonne - episode 1 - episode 2

Bajazet by Mounir Margoum and Adama Diop - episode 1 - episode 2 FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 10 FRANK CASTORF, A SYMBOLIC FIGURE IN EUROPEAN THEATRE

At 67 years of age, Frank Castorf is one of the major figures in German theatre. (...) Alongside Christoph Marthaler, Christoph Schlingensief or René Pollesch, his intense, deconstructionist, post-dramatic productions have firmly made their mark. He was one of the first to have brilliantly brought together theatre and video. BRIGITTE SALINO, LE MONDE, 10.09.16

An agitator if ever there was one, Frank Castorf creates a profusion of disconcerting mixes and distortions, weaving texts together and encouraging actors to digress by spicing his work with light-hearted discoveries, acrobatics and jokes. In Trainspotting, the vocal and physical exercises of the frenzied clown-characters develop against a most appropriate background. But more classic texts, such as The Devil’s General by Zuckmayer, Sartre’s Dirty Hands, or more recently, Caligula by Camus, are also fodder for his chaos-machine. His deconstructive approach, however, doesn’t result in any less stimulating productions, be they brutal, frivolous, disconcerting or hard-hitting. PHILIPPE IVERNEL, FOR L’ENCYCLOPÆDIA UNIVERSALIS

On an artistic front, the Volksbühne led by Frank Castorf was the space for a group of artists to express themselves, where each and every one, in their own way and no matter their generation, could uncompromisingly tackle concrete aspects of the aesthetic, economic and political changes of the time. Christoph Marthaler, Andreas Kriegenburg, Christoph Schlingensief, Johann Kresnik and Meg Stuart were described by their boss as being a league of ‘strong and radical personalities that packed a punch’. At a time when theatres are often no more than a final resting place for their director’s illusions, Frank Castorf continues to be an exception, utterly adored or determinedly snubbed. [read online] STÉPHANE MALFETTES, « FRANK CASTORF : LE THÉÂTRE DE L’AVENIR », ARTPRESS, N°330, 2007

Faust (Volksbühne Berlin, 2017) © Thomas Aurin FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 11

The ‘Castorf Method’ ‘Castorf uses the various elements that form the mise en scène – characters, text, actors, space, costumes, music, lighting and surroundings – like a Chinese painter who thinks about an image for years, only to produce it in record time and with apparent ease.’ As indicated by these flattering comments from Carl Hegemann, dramaturg at the Volksbühne, Castorf’s shows emerge from a short and highly intense rehearsal period. This sense of urgency is justified by the desire to continuously undo the idea of artistic ‘good manners’ in order to create conditions for a real stage experience. Castorf draws his actors into a movement of enthusiasm and exaggeration in order to demolish the urges, hatred, disgust and passion of their characters. As fanatic performers, they continue the show even when everything seems to have been said, until a state of exhaustion is reached. Their acting performance is based on a to’ing and fro’ing that fluctuates between the sublime and the grotesque, with the sole aim being complete unpredictability. As with Cassavetes’ films, the theatre of Frank Castorf is punctured and pierced by the life that surrounds it: he never forgets that ‘art is our existence come to life’. This idea from Dostoyevsky could serve as an epigraph for each of his productions, so often is the Russian author at the heart of Castorf’s literary obsessions: he has adapted Demons (1999), Humiliated and Insulted (2002), The Idiot (2002), and Crime and Punishment (2006). His choices tend towards fictional works that would seem to resist being transported to the stage: The Master and Margarita (2002) by Mikhail Bulgakov is one of his crowning achievements. The texts are approached in broad strokes, in an almost controversial way, such as in his production of Rästatte (1995) by Elfriede Jelinek, where the last act was replaced by the screening of a porn film. Partway between glorious feat and abject failure, virtuosity and complete mockery, aesthetic discord and ill-assorted matches, Castorf structures the world’s disorder, convinced that ‘purity is an ideal for a fakir or a monk’. Hoederer says this in Sartre’s Dirty Hands, a play that Castorf produced in 2002. Sustained by displacement and the shock of otherness, his adaptations are erosive and projective: they replace the characteristics that they abandon with key elements directly related to our times. Castorf’s theatre is that which is born out of a destroyed world.

STÉPHANE MALFETTES, « FRANK CASTORF : LE THÉÂTRE DE L’AVENIR «, ARTPRESS, N°330, 2007

Contradiction and Freedom

EXTRACTS FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH FRANK CASTORF IN RÉPUBLIQUE CASTORF, L’ARCHE EDITIONS, PARIS, 2017, PP. 265–282

Consensus in theatre has always been exactly what we’ve tried to destroy through conflict. For us it’s a question of continually asserting the right to contradict; a potential hositility. Art would be utterly boring if we removed all conflict. One of the achievements of the Greek polis was to accept the fact that people have different opinions and may disagree. Contradiction was a building block of the pro-slavery polis of Ancient Greece. Thanks to this contradiction, or rather conflict, a kind of evolution (therefore something new) occurred. Today’s attempts to reduce conflict, which allows more or less amateurs to turn their hand to art in Staatstheaters, means that the only point of consensus is to help us better survive from day to day. Art is supposed to have the same effect as an aspirin – to reduce pain. It has lost its potential for danger or for transgressing norms and rules. At the moment, we are living (in a surprised but also fearful kind of way) in a state of reduced pain, in the aspirin era. Consensus of this sort marks the end; of art, at least. Obviously this form of consensus is favourable for the business affairs of that richest part of our German society. Sometimes it’s better to stay true to yourself, though. In my case, this means being a fan of conflict, if you will. (...) Consensus in theatre has always been exactly what we’ve tried to destroy through conflict. For us it’s a question of continually asserting the right to contradict; a potential hostility. And even evil, if you will.

Hatred feeds off humiliation Hatred exists, even if it isn’t directed towards something in particular. Those involved in the attacks in the 11th arrondissement in Paris didn’t have a specific enemy. It was an act that had nothing to do with transgressing laws, but rather was a total reassessment of our rules; they were attacking the very rules that govern the physical lives of people, not the law itself. If these people deny these rules (which provide a legal framework for participating in the benefits that French democracy offers) or rather, if they destroy them, we really must ask ourselves why. Even though they have been conditioned in the same way as us, they behave in a radically different way. All of a sudden, they go beyond this conditioning to enter a state of hatred. Hatred, or rather terror, are fundamental forces that allow people to truly feel they are themselves. Hatred is a much more powerful emotion than love, and it doesn’t obey the rules. These people don’t accept the rules because basically, in this democracy, the rules are the same as they always have been: a part of the society in which they find themselves marginalised, an exception. But once we begin to question all this, the tools we use for arguments are no longer useful. How can we find common ground with people who are prepared to turn their backs on all the rules, to break them? In this context, humiliation becomes something important again. Yes, this humiliation exists everywhere. Even in the Paris metro, you come across it continually. Especially as it is present within a legal framework, where no one appears to be discriminated against. But any social rule can be categorised as discrimination when you are excluded from it. In such a situation, we are not able to analyse or even to explore the causes; there is an immediate feeling of violent humiliation. It develops like a virus. And we all know how difficult it is to fight against viruses. It will be the desert that counterattacks. Heiner Müller said to the effect: ‘When I die, brothers from all races will continue fighting one another, in the absence of them, it will be the land that carries on the war. We will be the stones and the desert and seas and the ocean!’ FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 13

That’s why I find so interesting theatre’s capacity to bring to the stage and hammer home a feeling such as humiliation, or even humility.

Today it is clear that there is no way for talent, art and theatre to have any particular influence or to create a state of emergency. To be one of those centres of energy or suns that Antonin Artaud talks about.

Just like during carnival, the theatre can give rise to a different state of being. (...) It’s a question of reaching a certain state through acting. (...) But it’s not a question of being politically correct; what counts is each particular element. Everyone has something very specific about them, compared to others (...) I don’t want to talk about things I’m not familiar with, but what we need to do is try and discover each individual. That’s what is vitally important. (...) Many overseas actors, who could easily be happy with acting in television or cinema or whatever else, feel a deep- seated need for the state of emergency that theatre work consists of. The need to be outside of oneself, the need for something we can’t imagine, where we are willing to transgress norms (which is in fact simply a bourgeois repression of one’s love life) and truly fight to regain our repressed natures. It is surprising to see how they throw themselves into a losing battle with such joy, how they act in one of my productions, where for five hours they do things that result in questions like: is this theatre work really worth it? All those bruises and bleeding bones? They say yes, and they do it.

Die Kabale der Scheinheilligen Das Leben des Herrn de Molière (Volksbühne Berlin, 2016) © Christophe Raynaud de Lage FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 14 FRANK CASTORF

Director

Frank Castorf was born in East Berlin in 1951. From 1971 to 1976, he studied theatre studies at the University of Humboldt. After completing his doctorate on Eugène Ionesco, he became a playwright and later a director. He founded his own theatre company in Anklam in 1981, producing texts from Heiner Müller, Antonin Artaud, William Shakespeare and Bertolt Brecht that attracted the censor’s attention. His 1984 production of Drums in the Night by Bertolt Brecht was cancelled under pressure from the Communist Party of the German Democratic Republic, and his interpretation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House resulted in the termination of his contract. He went on to © DR work for the Theater Chemnitz, the Neue Theater in Halle, the Volksbühne and the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, his plays have been produced across Germany. His productions are invited to festivals and international theatres, and his work has been awarded prestigious prizes (Mannheim Schiller Prize, Nestroy Theater Prize, Fritz Kortner Prize). In addition, he has © DR also created film adaptations of two theatre productions: The Possessed (or Demons) and The Idiot, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s works. From 1992 to 2017, he was intendant at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxembourg-Platz in Berlin-Mitte and was elected as a member of the Academy of the Arts in Berlin in 1994. At Avignon he presented Cocaine in 2004, based on Pitigrilli’s work, North by Louis-Ferdinand Céline in 2007, and Die Kabale der Scheinheiligen Das Leben des Herrn by Molière in 2017. Castorf takes on the greatest authors (Euripides, Jean-Paul Sartre, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Molière, Honoré de Balzac, Goethe) to produce shows with a subversive nature that gave rise to strong reactions from both audiences and critics. His continually renewed, formal inventiveness that drove him early on to explore and master the use of video on stage, his freedom of tone and mind, the radicalness with which he refutes mythification and mystification, the way in which he directs actors based on energy and invention, and his knowledge of the repertoire and history of theatre, with which his works are often in dialogue, contrasted against the concrete analysis of contemporary social situations, have made him a landmark for generations of artists and spectators for over 20 years. FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 15 JEANNE BALIBAR

Actor

After leaving the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris, Jeanne Balibar joined the Comédie-Française. She performed in The Maids by Jean Genet (dir. Philippe Adrien), Clitandre by Corneille (dir. Muriel Mayette), The Square by Marguerite Duras (dir. Christian Rist), Don Juan by Molière (dir. Jacques Lassalle), La Glycine by Serge Rezvani (dir. Jean Lacornerie) and Monsieur Bob’le by Georges Schehadé (dir. Jean-Louis Benoît). She has since performed in productions by Philippe Adrien, Julie Brochen (Penthesilea, Uncle Vania, Le Cadavre vivant, Histoire vraie de la périchole, The Cherry Orchard), Joël Jouanneau, Alain Françon, Jean- François Peyret and Olivier Py (Le Soulier de Satin). © DR She performed in La Danseuse malade by Boris Charmatz. In 2013, she was directed by Stanislas Nordey in Par les villages at the Festival d’Avignon. Since 2014, she has performed under the directorship of Frank Castorf : La Cousine Bette by Balzac, Kaputt by Curzio Malapart, Demons and The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, as well as Die Kabale der Scheinheiligen by Mikhaïl Boulgakov at the Volksbühne in Berlin, and Pastor Ephraim © DR Magnus by Hans Henny Jahnn at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. The Brothers Karamazov enjoyed a repeat performance in September 2016 at the opening of the Festival d’Automne in Paris. Her cinema career is no less prestigious. She has featured in nearly 40 films, directed by Mathieu Amalric (Mange ta soupe, Le Stade de Wimbledon), Olivier Assayas (Trois ponts sur la rivière, Clean), Jean-Claude Biette (Saltimbank), Arnaud Desplechin (Comment je me suis disputé (Ma vie sexuelle)), Laurence Ferreira Barbosa (J’ai horreur de l’amour), Christophe Honoré, Benoît Jacquot, Diane Kurys (Françoise Sagan), Jeanne Labrune (Ça ira mieux demain), Pierre Léon (L’Idiot), Maïwenn (Le Bal des actrices), Bruno Podalydès (Dieu seul me voit), Jacques Rivette (Va savoir, Ne touchez pas à la hache), Raul Ruiz and Pia Marais (A l’âge d’Ellen). In 2018, she received the César for best actress for her interpretation of the title-role in the filmBarbara by Mathieu Amalric. Jeanne Balibar has recorded two discs : Paramour (Dernière bande, 2003) and Slalom Dame (Naïve, 2006). FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 16 JEAN-DAMIEN BARBIN

Actor

Jean-Damien Barbin is an actor, writer, producer and lecturer at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris. He began his training at the Conservatoire National de Région de Nantes, the town where he was born, followed by the Ecole de la Rue Blanche in Paris (the ENSATT, or Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre), finally attending the Conservatoire National in classes taught by Denise Bonnal, Michel Bouquet and Daniel Mesguich. He has taken on different personalities, having acted in classic works (Shakespeare, Racine, Marivaux, Flaubert, Claudel) as well as contemporary creations (Edward Bond, Hélène Cixous, Nathalie Sarraute). His career has been interspersed with extensive collaborations with directors such as J. Mauclair, M. Bouquet, D. Mesguish, O. Py, and E. Vigner. Among his many interpretations are included L’Annonce faite à Marie by Paul Claudel, in Nantes, 1982, and Le Malade imaginaire with his teacher Michel Bouquet in 1987. In 2012, he acted in La Dame aux camélias by Alexandre Dumas in a production by Frank Castorf. In television and film he has worked with Francis Girod, Gérard Mordillat, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Bernard Favre, Patrice Ambard, Éric Forestier and © Mathilda Olmi/Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne Patricia Atanazio. He also teaches at the Cours Florent, at the l’École Régionale des Acteurs de Cannes (ERAC) and at the École Supérieure d’Art dramatique de la Ville de Paris (ESAD). FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 17 ADAMA DIOP

Actor

Adama Diop was born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1981. He arrived in France in 2002 to study at the Conservatoire National d’Art Dramatique in Montpellier under the direction of Ariel Garcia Valdes. After three years of enriching experiences, he decided to continue studying, and in 2005 joined the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris. After completing his studies under the direction of Bernard Sobel, he later worked with Yves Beaunesne, Jean Pierre Baro, Cyril Test, Christophe Perton, Marion Guerrerro, Patrick Pineau, Arnaud Meunier, Gilles Bouillon, Jean Boillot and Julien Gosselin. He has played the role of Macbeth, directed by Stéphane Braunschweig, and went on to join Julien Gosselin’s collective for his latest creation Joueurs/Mao2/Les Noms. He has appeared in several film projects directed by Jean-Philippe Gaud, Ousmane Darry, Yukamei and Laurent Bonotte. He has also participated in radio fictions directed by Mariannick Bellot, Christine Bernard-Sugy, Michel Sidoroff, Angélique Tibau, Amandine Casadamont, Juliette Heymann, Ilina Navaro and Christophe Hocké. © Mathilda Olmi/Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 18 MOUNIR MARGOUM

Actor

Mounir Margoum is a graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique, where he studied under Denis Podalydès, Joël Jouanneau and Lukas Hemleb. In the theatre world, he has worked a great deal under Jean-Louis Martinelli, for example, in Une Virée by Aziz Chouaki, Racine’s Phèdre, J’aurais voulu être égyptien by Alaa el Aswany, and Les fiancés de Loches by Georges Feydeau. He is experienced in both the classical and contemporary repertoires, having worked with various directors: Arthur Nauzyciel in Chekhov’s The Seagull (performed in the Pope’s Palace in Avignon), Mathieu Baueur in Alta Villa by Hamelin, Laurent Fréchuret in À portée de crachats by T. Najib, and many others. Recently he performed in Nathan?! directed by Nicolas Stemann at the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne. On screen, he has performed in major Anglo- Saxon productions such as Rendition by Gavin Hood (whose film Tsotsi won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2006) and House of Saddam, produced by the BBC and HBO. In France, he played secondary roles in Catherine Corsini’s Trois mondes and Ombre des femmes by Philippe Garrel, before playing the lead male role in Par accident by Camille Fontaine and Timgad by © Mathilda Olmi/Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne Fabrice Benchaouche. He also performed in Divines by Uda Benyamina, winner of the Caméra d’Or at the Festival de Cannes 2016. He has directed two short films, Hollywood Inch’Allah and R. et Juliette. FRANK CASTORF BAJAZET 19 CLAIRE SERMONNE

Actor

After having studied with Emmanuel Demarcy- Mota, Brigitte Jaques, Francois Regnault and Elisabeth Tamaris, Claire Sermonne then attended the Moscow Art Theatre School (MXAT). She made her début in 2007 with Allain Ollivier, playing the role of Chimène in Corneille’s Le Cid, created at the Festival de Fourvière in Lyon and then at the Théâtre Gérard Philipe. In 2012 Claire met Franck Castorf, with whom she now regularly works. She played Marguerite in La Dame aux Camélias at the Théâtre de l’Odéon. At the Volksbühne in Berlin, she played the role of Madame Marneffe, speaking German, French and Russian in Balzac’s La Cousine Bette. In 2015, at the Cloître des Carmes in Avignon, she created the role of the Historienne in Le Vivier des Noms, written and directed by Valère Novarina. She has also performed with Clément Poirée, Yves Beaunesne, Lucie Berelovitch, Razerka Ben Sadia-Lavant, Léo Cohen-Paperman, Noémie Ksikova, Gabriel Dufay (in 2018/2019, Fracassés [Wasted] by Kate Tempest). Claire Sermonne has appeared in films directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky, Agnes Jaoui, Gilles Legrand (Les Bonnes Intentions, released in 2018) and Guillaume Nicloux. She also plays the role of © Mathilda Olmi/Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne Louise de Rohan in the American television series Outlander, produced by Ronald D. Moor. Claire has been part of the troop at the Festival du Nouveau Théâtre Populaire (NTP) since 2011. She does radio recordings for France Culture with André Velter, Claude Guerre, Jacques Taroni, Denis Guénoun, Francois Dunoyer and Olivier Py.