Hotter than Patrick Swayze? I dunno...
Saturday day:
The theatre.
So Fiona and I got up at 8am after a late Friday night, and headed on the RER A out to where Théâtre du Soleil is. It was a bit of a mission - walked through a big park/forest for about half an hour - just to get out names on the waiting list for the night - but totally worth it!
Saturday night:
We came back with Andre, Anna, and Zoe at 5pm and waited around to see if we could get in. I went for a wander to see how it worked and found myself talking to none other than Ariane Mnouchkine at the door. She said we could go inside but had to come out again at 7.30pm to get our tickets.
Went and saw Théâtre du Soleil's 'Les Naufrages Du Fol' last night!!!
Wow! Wow! Wow! Inside was BEAUTIFUL! Tables everywhere, in a big warehouse space themed like the play, and the actors were serving dinner at the bar on the left. So we got dinner and some wine and sat together and marveled at the fantastic atmosphere before the show. What a great start to an evening at the theatre. Dinner with friends, served by actors, in a magical space. Full of ritual. Fantastic!
The dinner space.
Actors serving dinner.
It seems like a good warm up to me. All of these actors would have to have good complicité serving food together, have clear articulate voices and good listening skills to serve customers, and they'd be constantly moving!
In here you could see the actors preparing and putting on their makeup. Magic.
Sets came and went quickly and with ease.
We ended up getting tickets - and only 15€ at that. However we were sitting on the stairs... But that's fucking cool! We laughed because you could never do that in NZ or Australia due to safety hazards, but it was fine! The show was 3hrs and 45mins long. But sitting on stairs was absolutely fine.
The roof had a fake sun-roof effect. Andre reckons it was a TV Studio-style light ceiling above the roof. Fantastic! Makes the theatre look like day time.
The actual show was a masterpiece. I loved it. I'm not entirely sure what the details of what happened were, as the show was in french, but the staging and acting style made it very clear to follow. Les Naufrages Du Fol = The Castaways of Mad Hope by the way. Basically an old-fashioned silent film was being made by a company of actors, and the film was a massive journey across the world. So we see the director and his crew, and the actors, shoot all these scenes in different locations. When the actors speak, they lip-sync, and the words they are saying come up as sub-titles projected onto set pieces above them.
An actor in front of a painting, with fake snow being thrown on him.
There were awesome movie-effects created by the actors, right in front of our eyes.
- Clothes bustling in the wind = people shaking the actors coat, or tugging on a nylon string attached.
- A boat in a storm = a model of a boat in a little pool of green water on wheels, pushed around, and complemented with lightning lighting.
The floor (at this point) was just blankets covered in a giant sheet and fake snow bits.
There was also lots of simple theatre magic. Like having a curtain covering the stage at the start of the show so we don't know what the set is going to look like. And not in a flashy red-curtain kind of way. Just a simple sheet that gets pulled down when the show starts. Makes the evening that much more special, mysterious, and exciting.
The Queen of England in the far right.
I particularly liked the simple set (which I've drawn) of three sails that hung from above, and the bottom sail just dropped down which was then projected onto. So simple. So clear.
I have a feeling this is Maka from NZ. I haven't met him. But maybe? I'm totally stealing this staging for my Captain Cook show.
I really was blown away by the show. I loved the melodrama. The theatricality of it. All the mechanics were right in front of our eyes. Everybody worked together to create worlds. And these worlds were clear, exciting, and beautiful - and they required the audience's imagination also. Fun too! I could go on and on. Nearly four hours sitting on stairs and I did not get bored or tired of it once. Constant changes. Beautiful performances full of life. Physical. Silly. Dramatic. Ugh. Wonderful.
Six curtain calls. They earned it!
Sunday:
A lovely Skype date, then a french lesson with Professeur Antonella and some class mates at my place. Sleep now please.
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