I was Saturday at Paris's Comédie-Française to see Tennessee Williams's a Tramway named Desire in the production of American director Lee Breuer.
Breuer's concepts is a highly stylised one. Settings are inspired from Japan. They are both spare and sophsiticated as they keep changing. 4 mute characters keep coming and leaving to bring it alive. It both allows to make the most of a simple stage, to keep it very dynamic and also to be able to step back and think of the situation, the concept, the characters, ...
There is also a lot of focus (in a manner close to Peter Brook ...), each scene has an idea and the staging, actors play, ..., make it very clear. There are also nice touches of modernity. As an example, when Blanche is raped by Stanley, he is gradually masquerading as the Dark Knight's joker ... Small touches, not too much, just enough, ...
I started thinking where this approach would work well and came to the conclusion that Wagner's Ring could be a good candidate. If someone is reading this in Bayreuth ... (or elsewhere ...)
One last word: the Comédie-Française is currently staging Brecht, Shakespeare, Feydeau, ... Repertory is wide and all comments I am getting is that the classic Comédie-Française quality is present everywhere. As a Geneva-based friend of mine said: what I prefer in France is the Comédie-Françasie.
Breuer's concepts is a highly stylised one. Settings are inspired from Japan. They are both spare and sophsiticated as they keep changing. 4 mute characters keep coming and leaving to bring it alive. It both allows to make the most of a simple stage, to keep it very dynamic and also to be able to step back and think of the situation, the concept, the characters, ...
There is also a lot of focus (in a manner close to Peter Brook ...), each scene has an idea and the staging, actors play, ..., make it very clear. There are also nice touches of modernity. As an example, when Blanche is raped by Stanley, he is gradually masquerading as the Dark Knight's joker ... Small touches, not too much, just enough, ...
I started thinking where this approach would work well and came to the conclusion that Wagner's Ring could be a good candidate. If someone is reading this in Bayreuth ... (or elsewhere ...)
One last word: the Comédie-Française is currently staging Brecht, Shakespeare, Feydeau, ... Repertory is wide and all comments I am getting is that the classic Comédie-Française quality is present everywhere. As a Geneva-based friend of mine said: what I prefer in France is the Comédie-Françasie.
