This past June Gabriella purchased tickets to see a 4-hour French play by the famous Le Théâtre du Soleil. So, for the past month I've been whining about how this was such a waste of money for me since I would never be able to sit through, much less understand, a nearly 4 hour play in French. Last Friday was play-day so I had to request that I leave my French class 15 minutes early in order to make it to the outskirts of Paris where the theater is located. And, to top it off, I had had a very rough night with very little sleep so I already knew that I would be sleeping through most of the performance, which is my usual pose during long sedentary performances in the evening....I just can't sleep in a bed! So, at 5:15 I zipped out of class, caught the metro, met Gabriella at the Bastille then re-entered the metro that took us to the end of the line Chateau Vincennes. Here we had to wait for a Navette, shuttle bus, that took us about 10 minutes away to La Chartoucherie, an old munitions factory complex that has been converted into a theater, s0me shops, and night clubs, a very interesting and great reuse of space. Le Théâtre du Soleil actually refers to the avant-guard stage ensemble founded in the late 60s by Ariana Mnouchkine and Phillip Léotard and other students. She was actually taking tickets at the door. It's quite a production to get seats as it's open seating so everyone rushes to get through the door as soon as possible. The building itself looks like a large warehouse where we entered into a large restaurant area, proceeded quickly through the center part that looked like a storage area for sets, and then into the theater space. The seats were bleachers with cushioned seats and back and each had a paper number attached to a leather holder. The seats that had already been claimed were missing their numbers. So, we quickly found seats, took the number off the back of the seat, and attached it to our ticket. We then backtracked to the restaurant where we ate home cooked food, mine was simple salad with boiled potatoes, and Gabriella had the meat stew. These were the only choices with dessert which I had with coffee in order to stay awake. Everyone sat at long tables or benches or other types of unusual furniture around the room. All the people serving food, directing people, etc. were also the cast members.
The play began at 7:30 and ended 3 hours 45 minutes later with a short 15 minutes break. The stage was open with one exit down a set of stairs stage-left. At the break, we saw that the steps lead to the dressing/makeup room, located directly under the bleachers. The open end was draped with see-through lace material so the public could see the actors preparing for their roles. The play itself was mesmerizing and I never even thought about falling asleep! It was about the filming a silent movie concerning the worldwide events and political movements/ideologies leading up to WW I. Actually, it was hilarious watching how they re-enacted the filming process. In one scene the ship was in a huge storm at sea and they drug in a square metal box about one foot high, 4 feet long and 3 feet wide full of water with a toy ship in it. The camera person was holding a wooden box-style camera turning its crank while people directed fans at the ship, someone else used a wooden paddle to create huge waves, and a couple of musicians created the sounds on cello, piano, and symbols. There were several scenes with snow so cast members would stand on the sides throwing handfuls of fake snow in front of the fan while others pulled on ropes that were attached to long planks above that were piled with the fake stuff. As the ropes rocked the planks, the snow would fall...it was all fascinating to watch. The most helpful aspect was that since it was about the filming of this silent movie the speak was written above just like in the old silent films. Between scenes the actors would carry on in verbal language so I was able to understand quite a bit of the material. I am really thankful I got to see such a creative, fascinating, interesting, and fun play! Voila!
