Twelve shows and festivals to book for April

THE MORNING LIST

See two great actresses, Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Hiegel, revel in the roles of grande dame, discover the new ballet by Jan Martens created for the Cour d’honneur of the Palais des Papes, at the Avignon festival, marvel at the creation of Séverine Chavrier on the Aria da capo or laughing at the projections of Waly Dia at the Zénith de Paris… so many opportunities to go out with the arrival of spring.

“Mary Said What She Said”: the Queen of Scotland sentenced

Walking, running, slowing down, going straight ahead, tracing sideways, backing up, attacking again and so on until exhaustion. When the footsteps collide with invisible walls, entrusting the arms, the bust, the face with the task of expressing the interior torment of a condemned sovereign. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, is going to die. His speech is haggard or repetitive, his body flabbergasted or distraught. Overexposed in the uncluttered space where Robert Wilson assigns her, against the light or in full light, Isabelle Huppert enters the land of writing. She is dressed in a long rigid dress, her neck is strangled by a high collar. Inhabited by the words of Mary (text by Darryl Pinckney), she is the leader of a galvanized game where word and movement hug each other madly. There is dance and trance in the performance of this incredible performer whose limits we wonder. And if she even has any. J.Ga.

“The Rules of good manners in modern society”: a feminist rant

With a rough smile, her dark eyes fixed on the audience, the actress Catherine Hiegel slips with feline flexibility into the sinuosities of writing cut for the theatre. That of Jean-Luc Lagarce fits him like a glove. The author has adapted a bestseller from the end of the 19^e century: one Manual of civility written by Baroness Staffe who explains to the bourgeois how to behave in good society. This user manual omits nothing of the key stages of an existence: from birth to death, it details the procedure to follow in the event of baptism, marriage or funeral. Recipes from another century that Lagarce seasons with tongue-in-cheek humour. Which certainly delights the actress who remains on stage what she is in life: a lively spirit. And a high-flying artist capable of transforming a reactionary pensum into an authentic feminist firebrand. J.Ga.

You have 80.47% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.