A need for companies

We realize a bit more every day what art allows us to do through its game of mirrors and differentiation, i.e. to “produce” meaning while reducing the fear of the other. This is all the truer in theatre. Rehearsals represent opportunities to confront each other’s sensibility, words and sometimes radically different characters, so as to work together on a common project. These people define themselves through exchange. In this way, they constitute a first group comprised of multiple characters who are always eager to discuss, share and question the way they work.  The meaning of this work does not pre-exist, for nothing is certain. It is the dialogue, exchange, constant questioning of the form as well as the critical thinking on the work itself that constitute the artistic act. Performing this act results in a fragile outlook of meaning that is always shifting and developing throughout rehearsals and even during the performance in front of a group of strangers, i.e. spectators. In order to live (survive), every society has to be criticized by the art it produces. Every society should provide its people with the means and necessary tools to study, reassess, think upon and teach itself, so as to move forward and evolve.

Howard Barker’s Ce qui évolue, ce qui demeure (The Moving and the Still) was edited during performances and adapted by the company under the direction of Fanny Mentré. This play will give the go to the new TNS season at the Espace Klaus Michael Grüber, while James Thiérrée will present his latest show Raoul for the first time at the TNS, in Koltès venue. I have always considered the work of independent companies as the richest and most thrilling of all. It is often risky, radical, personal. The relationships we establish with those companies sometimes last several decades. This is how “Les compagnons de jeu” (‘The Playfellows’) have enriched through chance yet decisive meetings. Many paths have crossed and many of us have worked together. It is a real pleasure for me to find myself “in company” with some of them.

I am thinking about David Lescot of course, whose new creation is coproduced by the TNS. This work is based on The Ponzi scheme and finance as both a poetic and musical reference. We are also glad to programme his Commission centrale de l’enfance, which was awarded the Molière of the best breakthrough play in 2009 and which still guides his work as an actor, author and director. As for the artist Irène Bonnaud, she is currently associated with the Centre dramatique de Thionville. She will present us her adaptation of Isaac Babel’s absolutely wonderful text Soleil Couchant. Bruno Meyssat’s Observer is a theatrical shock questioning the reality of a disaster, i.e. the death of Hiroshima. Jacques Osinski is currently manager of the Centre dramatique of Grenoble. He will present us two shows performed by the same actors, i.e. Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck and Wolfgang Borchert’s Dehors devant la porte. Manager of the TGP-CDN of Saint-Denis Christophe Rauck will present his adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Têtes rondes et têtes pointues (Round heads and pointed heads). Pierre Meunier will be with us as usual, as well as François Chattot and Pierre-Yves Chapalain. We are currently co-producing Meunier’s new creation on the theme of language, entitled Du fond des gorges. We will have the pleasure of welcoming La Omisión de la familia Coleman once again, as well as Claudio Tolcachir’s new show with his company Timbre 4, entitled El Viento en un violin. Two shows,Nunzio and Pali, put on by the company Scimone Sframeli will also be programmed, with the support and kind participation of the Italian cultural institute of Strasbourg. Finally, we would like to welcome the British presidency of the Council of Europe, which we acknowledge by programming Howard Barker’s Ce qui évolue, ce qui demeure (The Moving and the Still) and William Shakespeare’s Roméo et Juliette (Romeo and Juliet), translated, adapted and directed by Olivier Py, which I am more than glad and proud to receive this season.

This desire to open up the TNS to the world and Europe will be reaffirmed and perpetuated through the close collaboration between the TNS team and Bernard Fleury at the occasion of the 7^th Premières Festival. The aim is to give Premières a new dimension after the postponement of the 2011 edition.

The company will tour for four months with Dom Juan. Once they come back to Strasbourg, we will try to direct a Dom Juan film with the same crew that shot La Cerisaie (The Cherry Orchard) under the direction of Alexandre Gavras. The TNS company will eventually expand this upcoming season. Marie Desgranges, Antoine Hamel, Ivan Hérisson and David Martins will join us in September. Along with Muriel Inès Amat, Fanny Mentré, Cécile Péricone and Fred Cacheux will strengthen the beating heart of the TNS, i.e. the artistic duty and its essential role in the fulfilment of our common project. Florence Delay, Jacques Roubaud, Christian Schiarretti and I have wanted to put companionship and companies at the heart of our project. This is why we have created Le Graal Théâtre (The Holy Grail Theatre) together. This project was born in June 2011 at the Théâtre National Populaire of Villeurbanne with Joseph d’Arimathie. Merlin l’enchanteur will be the next step in this project the upcoming season. The TNP and the TNS will work hand in hand to fulfil or at least dream this quest until 2014 …

As Jean-Luc Nancy – with whom we will continue the TNS discussions - puts it, what “is to come is to come” and it is in this spirit that I would like to invite you to “jump on board” for this new season.

Julie Brochen