The Elementary Particles

The students had another day to find their way through Avignon as the fourth day of the trip began. Here are a few snap shots of the group having fun!

The first show of the day was performed in a location outside of the old city of Avignon. The old city is surrounded by a wall that was completed in 1248, and thus far on our trip we had only seen the train station and what was inside of these walls. It was a nice change of pace to be able to see the rural part of France from a vehicle and, once we arrived at the Vedene Auditorium we took our seats. The Elementary Particles was originally a novel written by Michel Houellebecq but adapted by Julien Gosselin.  This mixture of poetry, fiction, and theory follows ten actors, some narrators and some characters, as they discuss the disconnect between sexuality and reproduction with comical but often strikingly serious dialogue. The emotional and sexual misery of Western man propelled this performance. With such a young cast and the first ever French adaptation of The Elementary Particles I was deeply moved to say the least. 

The second and last show we saw on our fourth day was The Villages by  Stanislas Nordey. Nordey just so happens to be one of the two Associate Artists for the 2013 festival. Nordey's different sensibility and viewpoint earned him this award. The piece is what I would call a minimalist production with only eight actors in a four and a half hour play. The set was carefully constructed but only used for a fraction of the time, creating a focus on the words and body language of the actors. Each actor had a very specific bodily stance that spoke in depth about their character. The piece included multiple monologues lasting up to forty-five minutes per actor. Because of the minimal movement, set, music, and costuming this piece was not for the faint of heart. After four and a half hours of passionate monologues and dialogues the piece came to a conclusion that left many audience members feeling uncertain about their perception of the piece. In my opinion, as a non-French speaking audience member who quickly became aware that the focus of the piece was on the importance of every word (not my biggest advantage) I felt as though this performance was a challenge. And contrary to some thoughts I can easily say that I enjoyed this piece. I found myself grasping at every word for some hint of what the characters were speaking about, I saw how passionate and dedicated each individual was and although I could not understand literally what they were saying I felt that I had created and appreciated my own understanding. 

That is the beauty of this festival and this trip, everyone had a chance to see what they loved, hated, and what they would like to try in the future. Ultimately I think we can all agree that every performance had a huge impact on our artistry. 

Here are a few photos from The Village