Photo credits: E. ZEIZIG - José JOUBERT - Pierre SARRADIN
Previous shows
Very diverse, the Atelier des Actes repertoire borrows from the classics but also gives pride of place to 20th century authors, not to mention the boulevard theater and contemporary theater.
MEDEE - 1996
By Jean ANOUILH
The play is inspired by the myth of Medea, ten years after betraying her father and killing her brother for the love of Jason and the conquest of the Golden Fleece. Jason then separates from her and prepares to marry the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. ; refusing flight and happiness, Medea will continue to sow fire ...
THE mENAGERIE OF GLASS - 2002
From Tennessee WILLIAMS
In Tom's memory, a family past that haunts him is replayed, between a mother obsessed with his lost youth and a sickly fragile sister.
LOUISON - 2002
Louison, the daughter of a farmer, was sent to Paris to be housekeeper with her godmother La Maréchale, her son (Le Duc) and her daughter-in-law (La Duchesse). Her name is now Lisette. She finds herself distraught when the Duke courts her, tired of his young wife who flees the world of the Court. Then arrives Berthaud, a childhood friend of Louison, who comes to ask her in marriage.
A charming comedy with some monologues of women, funny or moving.
DANGEROUS TURN - 2001
By JBPRIESTLEY
A group of close friends gather for a pleasant evening that begins when they listen together to a radio novel called The sleeping dog, which ends with a gunshot and a cry. A lively conversation ensues over the bizarre title of the radio novel. Soon they start talking about the recent suicide of Martin Clapman, a mutual friend and brother of one in attendance, Robert. Taken from an innocent comment on a cigarette box, disturbing revelations from everyone present that affect the personal relationships between them as well as the one they had with the deceased. The temperature of the discussion rises and finally - as in the radio novel - it ends with a gunshot and a scream. This brings the action back to the start of the first scene, with the band listening to the radio. The action is repeated and the dialogues are repeated, except for the allusion to the tobacco package. By crossing only a dangerous curve , the testimonies and the previous confessions are not produced and the feast ends in a joyful fraternity.
CHICAGO BLUES - 2000
By Guy FOISSY
Three characters meet in a square: the quiet and dreamy lethargy of Agnes, a not very happy widow, and the apathy of Mouche, huddled in her waterproof old.
Two sleepy people suddenly awakened by the appetite of a rebel in black leather Joan who wants to blow up the city.
To wake up; but why ? To go where ? And how far will they go?
THE BOURGEOIS GENTILHOMME - 2007
From Molière
Rich bourgeois, Mr. Jourdain intends to acquire the manners of quality people. He decides to order a new outfit more in line with his new condition and sets out to learn weapons, dance, music and philosophy, all of which seem essential to his condition as a gentleman .
He courts Dorimène, a widowed marquise, brought under his roof by her lover, an authoritarian count, who intends to take advantage of the naivety of M. Jourdain and Dorimène.
His wife and Nicole, his servant, laugh at him, then worry to see him so envious, and try to bring him back to the reality of his daughter Lucile's upcoming marriage to Cléonte. But the latter not being a gentleman, M. Jourdain refuses this union.
Cléonte then decides to enter the game of dreams of nobility of Mr. Jourdain, and with the help of his valet Covielle, he passes himself off as the son of the Grand Turk. He thus obtained the consent of M. Jourdain, who believed himself to have reached the highest nobility after being promoted " Mamamouchi " during a burlesque Turkish ceremony organized by Covielle's accomplices.
THE THREE SISTERS - 2011
The members of the Prozorov family, made up of three sisters, Macha, Olga and Irina and their brother Andrei, share a provincial residence, in the deep Russian countryside. Andrei himself is married to Natacha. The play opens with Irina's birthday, a year after their father's death, marking the end of mourning and the start, it is believed, of a new life. The small provincial town, near which the house is located, welcomes a regiment which has just arrived. The life of the Prozorovs turns out to be dominated by boredom and is only punctuated by the visits of officers from the neighboring garrison, and gradually become like members of this family suffering from the pain of living. However, a dream inhabits the three sisters : return to Moscow, the city of their happy childhood. No hero, little action ; this play goes against the classic pattern by featuring extremely human characters who see their lives gradually wither away, with the despair of having built nothing, undertaken nothing.
Between absurd conversations and great philosophical debates, between failed marriages and amorous despair, Tchekhov addresses in The Three Sisters the themes of time passing and destroying dreams, the importance of work and autonomy, boredom and love.
WHITE - 2014
Yeah, a dreamy, phlegmatic little girl spends most of her time with her Granny Blanche, her eccentric grandmother. Together, they play badminton with an invisible shuttlecock, dance at the local tavern, tell each other stories about the great women of history… And then Pépé Lulu died three months ago. Granny Blanche needs some company and she's seriously starting to go off the rails. Yeah don't understand. Her parents say Grandma Blanche has something on her mind, a "thing with a weird name." Granny Blanche, instead, claims that it was Léon Zitrone who stole her head. This funny and touching dialogue puts simple and tender words on transmission and the passage of time.
Doctor Petypon is not a reveler but, trained by his friend Mongicourt, he made the bomb until the early hours of the morning ; and at noon he is still sleeping. Mongicourt, the friend, discovers him under an overturned sofa. A young woman appears in a day shirt, the Shrimp Kid, a dancer at the Moulin Rouge .
General Petypon, uncle with inheritance, arrives unexpectedly, back from Africa. Not suspecting his nephew's escapades, he takes the Kid for the latter's wife. Petypon leaves his uncle in the wrong. The general is there to invite his nephew to the wedding of his niece Clémentine, in his castle in Touraine. The doctor is forced to take the Kid with him ...
LES BIENOCHAUD OR THE CHAPEL AU CLAIR DE LUNE - 1998
Creation of the Atelier des Actes - based on the Bidochons
It is a collective creation freely inspired by the world of comics.
The Bienochauds are an ordinary couple that time and habit disunite. The songs that Élise sings punctuate the show. They thus lead her husband Eugene to the last stage of the Chapel in the moonlight where their loves will meet again.
In the second version of Bienochaud, the television universe is also approached, in particular through the game of the wheel of fortune.
ESCURIAL - 1996
A mad king, locked up with his jester in his decrepit palace, awaits the death of a dying queen. By game, by challenge or by pure cruelty, the king imposes a strange game on the jester : for a while, they will reverse their attributes and functions. Willy-nilly, the jester complies, he sees an opportunity to take revenge on the King because he himself was in love with the queen but he gets caught up in the game and, when it comes to returning his scepter and his scepter to the king. crown, he keeps them and tries to retain power. The king then has him put to death by his executioner after the jester tries to strangle him.
BABY PURGE - 1993
We're purging baby of Georges feydeau is a caricature of its time. This is a comedy crudely depicting the social problems of the twentieth century. It is particularly about the status of women (which is starting to be talked about in the United States) and corporal punishment. Toto also stands up to his parents, which is unthinkable for the time : Toto is the archetype of the child king.
Show entitled "DRIVES" - 1990
THE WHITE PRINCESS
By RILKE
This is the story of the young princess who has always refused her husband. When he is finally away, she awaits, in the company of her sister Monna Lara, the arrival of the man she loves and who will make her a woman. There is not much going on in itself, it is more a reflection on life, death and dreams. We find ourselves plunged into an unstable, somewhat disturbing reality where the boundaries between life, dreams and death are blurred and shifting.
Sylvester Symphony -
1985
First creation of the Atelier des Actes. It is a montage of four love scenes taken from classical theater. Excerpts from Tchéckov's "Bear", Molière's "Les Précieuses ridicules", "Hamlet" and Shakespeare's "Merry Gossips of Windsor".
POTENCY GAME - 1993
Plumard, Pépita's cuckolded husband, decides to bring in the police to ascertain the facts. Taupinier, the lover, arrives, but Pépita sends him back to get the newspaper and a dog-shaped brooch that she lost the day before. Arrives Lemercier, a schoolteacher who thinks he has found Pépita's "dog". Taupinier returns with the newspaper in which we speak of a dangerous killer who strangely resembles Lemercier.
LEONCE AND LENA - 1991
Léonce, crown prince, decides to escape with his valet, Valério, in order to escape a marriage with an unknown princess. The princess, Lena, also not very enchanted, also flees with her governess. He does not want to fall into line, she refuses a union for reasons of state. Their fugue and their destiny intersect, between dream and reality, the time of a whimsical nocturnal where the desire for love and the desire for death are woven. The next day, without knowing who they are, they each return to Leonce's father's castle where the wedding is to take place. Léonce and Léna will end up taking the place which was assigned to them, while continuing to ignore each other. It is then that they learn to their amazement who the other is. The wedding takes place, and in joy, Léonce and Léna being in love with each other.
THE PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GRAY - 1986
By Oscar WILDE
Dorian meets Lord Henry, says Harry, a friend of Basil Hallward, a renowned painter. Aware of the fascination and perversion that Lord Henry might have for his ideal of beauty, " this simple and beautiful nature Basil asks Lord Henry not to try to bribe him. But Dorian is seduced by the theories about the youth and the pleasure of this new friend who reveals it to himself by flattering him. : " A new hedonism […] You could be the visible symbol. With your personality, there is nothing you cannot do. " From then on, a deep jealousy was born in him with regard to his own portrait painted by Basil Hallward. He expresses the wish that the painting will age in its place in order to be able to keep its adolescent beauty itself.
" If I always remained young and the portrait grew old in my place ! I would give anything, anything to make it so. There is nothing in the world that I would not give. I would give my soul ! "
Subsequently the young man falls in love with an actress whose acting fascinates him, Sibyl Vane, and promises him marriage. But her love for Dorian prevents Sibyl from playing her characters as she did before and her acting becomes very bad, which can be seen by Basil and Lord Henry whom Dorian took with him to the theater. Deeply disappointed and humiliated, Dorian repudiates Sibyl and abruptly leaves her, leaving her devastated. When he got home he noticed on the portrait an expression of cruelty that he did not know him. He then begins to suspect that his foolish wish might have come true. The next day, he learns from Harry of Sibyl's suicide. Surprisingly, he only feels superficial pain at the news of this death. :
" However I must admit that this event did not move me as much as it should have. It strikes me as the sublime ending of an astonishing play. It has all the frightening beauty of a Greek tragedy, a tragedy in which I played a big part but from which I come out unscathed. "
It's a pivotal moment in the novel, the moment when going back is no longer possible for Dorian, although he doesn't know it yet. The picture has started to change : Dorian's soul is no longer that of the innocent young man who could feel compassion for his fellow men.
The Precious Ridiculous
From Molière
Two young people, La Grange and Du Croisy, come out of Gorgibus, a provincial bourgeois recently arrived in Paris. They are very unhappy with the contemptuous reception they received from Magdelon and Cathos, respectively daughter and niece of the old man. La Grange explains to his friend how he intends to take revenge on the too proud young girls : by making them meet Mascarille, his valet, " an extravagant who got it into his head to want to be the man of condition ". (scene 1)
Discovering that the two young people are unhappy with their visit, Gorgibus, in order to understand the reason, calls for Magdelon and Cathos, who are busy getting together " lip ointment ". (scenes 2 and 3)
While Gorgibus asks them for explanations of their behavior towards La Grange and Du Croisy, which he intended for them as husbands, Magdelon and Cathos tell him that it is out of the question for them to marry people " incongruous in gallantry », And that they want to live a romantic and romantic adventure resembling the novels of Ms by Scudéry . Understanding nothing of their speech, Gorgibus persists : he wants to marry them as soon as possible, or else they will be sent to the convent . (scene 4)
The Merry Gossips of WINDSOR
Sir John Falstaff decides to court Dame Page and Dame Ford, two happy bourgeois women from Windsor. The two friends keep the purse strings at home and Falstaff is in need of money.
He sends the same love letter to both women, changing only the signature. When the two friends and confidants discover the maneuver, they decide to have fun at the expense of the big clumsy seducer.
Dame Ford asks Falstaff to come to her house when her husband is away. Falstaff accepts and goes to the meeting. Master Ford, informed, is on the scene. Upon the arrival of the husband, Falstaff hides with some difficulty in the laundry basket that the servants pour into the Thames.
Dame Ford invites Falstaff again and the ploy begins again. This time, when the husband arrives, he stumbles upon Falstaff disguised as a wife. Believing he is dealing with a witch, he literally throws him out of the house.
The two women explain the situation to their husbands and they all decide to play Falstaff one last time. Ladies Ford and Page set him on a nightly rendezvous in Windsor Forest, ordering him to disguise himself as a ghost so as not to be recognized. Falstaff readily accepts.
Meanwhile, Anne Page, the daughter of Mistress Page is courted by three suitors. Slender, his father's choice, Dr. Caius, the choice of her mother and finally the young and handsome Fenton whom she wants to marry. Everyone meets in the forest. Anne escapes the two suitors she does not want. She runs away with Fenton and marries him. As for Falstaff, he is taken to task and ridiculed by children disguised as fairies and elves.
ONE JUBILEE - 1988
Khirine complains about his director Chipoutchine, for whom he has to write the text of a presentation to be delivered in the afternoon, he is however hampered in his work by various things.
First of all, Chipoutchine tells her about her relationship problems, in fact, according to him, Khirine drinks and beats his wife, this annoys Khirine who has a rather angry character. Then Tatiana arrives, and tells various stories that happened to her recently, that no one understands except her, which are long, and which no one wants to listen to. Finally, Mertchoukina arrives and claims Chipuchin 25 rubles for some crazy reason : her husband was fired from an army corps, and part of his salary was withheld for no reason, but she firmly believes that it is necessary to turn to Chipuchin for reimbursement, and despite Chpuchin's efforts, she perseveres in her request.
Thereafter, Khirine goes mad and chases the two women to get them out, and both pass out when a delegate of the labor inspectors arrives to present a prize to Chipuchin, but, seeing the situation in the office, leaves again. with its price.
THE CAPRICES OF MARIANNE - 1989
This is the story of the young princess who has always refused her husband. When he is finally away, she awaits, in the company of her sister Monna Lara, the arrival of the man she loves and who will make her a woman. There is not much going on in itself, it is more a reflection on life, death and dreams. We find ourselves plunged into an unstable, somewhat disturbing reality where the boundaries between life, dreams and death are blurred and shifting.
ACTORS IN GOOD FAITH
From MARIVAUX
During the marriage between Eraste (nephew of Madame Amelin) and Angélique (daughter of Madame Argante), Madame Amelin had the idea of a comedy, she entrusted the role of director to Merlin, her nephew's valet. The latter decides to create a comedy in which valets and followers will improvise their roles and rely on the natural character of each to advise on the game. Blaise is to marry Colette, and himself, Merlin, is engaged to Lisette, the room maid. He imagines having Lisette courted by Blaise, while he himself will court Colette, and he has them rehearse first. But Colette takes the matter seriously and, instead of taunting Merlin as she was allowed, she responds with kindness to his compliments. Blaise gets angry at this behavior of his fiancée. Lisette also finds that Merlin plays his role with Colette too naturally. We quarrel, Madame Argante appears at the noise, and asks that we do not play the programmed comedy. Madame Amelin, who was keen on this comedy, pretends to annul the planned marriage between her nephew Eraste and Angelique and to marry Eraste to her friend Araminte, much older. The reactions of Madame Argante and the other protagonists to this new situation are an unintentional new comedy. The arrival of the Notary allows for a happy ending.
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Our story begins with a dream or rather a hallucination...
the dream of a sleeping young man...
His dream gives substance to the silhouette of a figure silhouetted against the pale moonlight. This character is an old woman.
She observes the moon "pale with fury". The moon is threatening and it discharges its humors on the earth causing ruins and desolation. It's trouble in the cycle of the seasons...
Summer in the heart of winter...
The wheat rots and the old winter bears "a fragrant crown of fragrant summer buds."
And if the world is a chaos, it is because humans are also subject to the ravages of the invisible fury of the heart: desires, longings, jealousies, hatreds, loves, losses and desires for children.
Our tale tells us all about it...
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