In 2024, Avignon will speak Spanish and the most advanced languages of contemporary creation. Tiago Rodrigues presented, Wednesday April 3 in the city of the Popes, the program of the 78e edition of the festival, and the second under his direction. A special edition: due to the Olympic Games, the festival has been brought forward by one week compared to its usual frequency and will be held from June 29 to July 21. But an edition which continues the line, drawn in 2023, of a gentle evolution, in the balance to be maintained between the opening of new trails and the rediscovery of forgotten paths.
In a troubled world, Avignon must “Find your words”like the title chosen by Tiago Rodrigues for this 2024 edition: “We are a festival that seeks the words to talk about a world threatened by war, inequality, extremism and the climate emergency”, writes the director in his editorial. After English in 2023, the guest language this year is Spanish, and the festival is adorned with a visual identity in the colors of the South (yellow and bright pink), evoking sunspots that are both beneficial and evil.
Look for his words but also his gestures:“accomplice artist” of this edition, according to the terminology adopted, is the French choreographer Boris Charmatz, now director of the Tanztheater in Wuppertal founded by Pina Bausch, who had already been “associated artist” in Avignon in 2011. He will be present throughout the festival with three shows, marking the hybrid dimension of this program where the forms mixed between theater, dance, circus, music and performance are numerous, reflecting the always evolving interdisciplinarity of the contemporary creation.
It is also one of the heretical popesses of the current scene who will have the honors of the opening in the Court of Honor of the Palais des Papes: the Spaniard Angélica Liddell, with Damon. The funeral of Bergman, a creation (freely, as always with her) inspired by the great Swedish filmmaker. The strong opening of this festival will also be provided by Séverine Chavrier, one of the most electrifying directors of today, who will present her vision ofAbsalom, Absalom!, by Faulkner, at La FabricA. And by Tiago Rodrigues himself, with Hecuba, not Hecubaat the Carrière de Boulbon: this personal interpretation of Euripides’ tragedy also sees the return to Avignon of the Comédie-Française troupe, with one of its greatest actresses, Elsa Lepoivre, in the title role.
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