The earlier
theatre
generation of
Genet
,
Anouilh
and
Camus
, joined by
Beckett
and
Ionesco
, hasn't really had successors. In the 1950s,
Roger Planchon
set up a company in a suburb of Lyon, determined to play to
working-class audiences. It became the Théâtre Nationale Populaire, the
number-two state theatre after the Comédie Française, and now does the
classics with all due decorum. Bourgeois farces, postwar classics,
Shakespeare, Racine and Cyrano de Bergerac make up the staple fare in
most theatres. But certain directors in France do extraordinary things
with the medium. Classic texts are shuffled to produce theatrical
moments where spectacular and dazzling sensation takes precedence over
speech. Their shows are overwhelming: huge casts, vast sets - sometimes
in real buildings never before used for theatre - exotic lighting
effects, original music scores. They are a unique experience, even if
you haven't understood a word. Directors' names to look out for are Peter Brook
(the English director who has been in Paris for decades; he is based at the Centre Internationale de Création),
Ariane Mnouchkine
,
Patrice Chereau
and
Jérôme Savary
.
Café-théâtre , literally a revue, monologue or
mini-play performed in a place where you can drink and sometimes eat,
is probably less accessible than a Racine tragedy at the Comédie
Française. The humour or puerile dirty jokes, wordplay, and allusions
to current fads, phobias and politicians can leave even a fluent French
speaker in the dark.
In cities other than Paris, the theatres are often part of the Maisons
de la Culture or Centres d'Animation Culturelle; local tourist offices
usually have schedules and tickets are not expensive. The two major
theatre festivals are the Festival Mondial du Théâtre
in Nancy (June) and the
Festival d'Avignon
(July).
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