A summer festival -goer

If the Arabic language is in the spotlight of the 79th Avignon Festival, and the programming is enriched by proposals from artists from Tunisia, Syria, Palestine, Morocco, Lebanon or Iraq, the present edition is no exception to the headliners of the European theater. We are waiting for the resumption of Satin shoe by Paul Claudel, in the staging of the outgoing administrator of the Comédie-Française, Éric Ruf. A very high volley show [voir L’Œil n° 783]in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes. A moment in resonance with the history of the festival and the legendary staging of Antoine Vitez in 1987. The German Thomas Ostermeier, who had shaken the festival in 2004 with his decapant staging of Woyzeck From Georg Büchner, returns to Avignon with an adaptation of Duck of Henrik Ibsen. Another big name, the Swiss director of theater and opera Christoph Marthaler presents The summitfierce satire of the intellectual emptiness of the elites. He will have his audience! Another expected show, The distance From Tiago Rodrigues, Portuguese director and director of the festival: a futuro-climatic fable, which recounts the efforts of a father who remained on earth to communicate with his daughter established on Mars … in tune with the times. Without forgetting the Off festival, whose plethoric offer (1,500 shows) is like a “supermarket” of the theater: there is everything, very good as of the dismay. If the dance is in good place in the Avignon In Festival in Avignon (30 % of the programming), it is central to the Vaison Dances of Vaison-la-Romaine. A risk -free programming, in the superb setting of an ancient outdoor theater, which takes up major high quality shows, some of which have already gone around the world: the Junior Ballet of the Paris Opera, the Ballet Preljocaj with Requiem (s)Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (Il Cimento …see Eye n ° 779), Blanca Li, Mourad Merzouki… more selective, lyric obliges, the prestigious Aix-en-Provence festival, with, in particular, the opera Don Giovanni of Mozart by Simon Rattle or the global creation of The Nine Jewelled Deer From Peter Sellars (to Luma Arles). More popular, Grignan’s night festivals present an outdoor show, in front of the facade of the Renaissance castle of the daughter of the Marquise de Sévigné: a classic Seville barber From Beaumarchais, directed by Jean-Philippe Daguerre with 9 comedians-musicians in a Spanish atmosphere. To see if we do not fall into the images of Épinal… popular-and free-, the very good street art festivals deserve the detour by a constant quality of edition programming in edition: in Aurillac and Chalons-sur-Saône. And for Parisians or those passing through in an Assagie Capital, the essential Paris summer festival deploys an eclectic program, between dance, theater, music and exhibitions. To your agendas!