Théâtre du Soleil
Encyclopedia
Le Théâtre du Soleil is a Paris
ian avant-garde
stage ensemble founded by Ariane Mnouchkine
, Philippe Léotard
and fellow students of the L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq
in 1964 as a collective of theatre artists. Le Théâtre du Soleil is located at La Cartoucherie, a former munitions factory in the Vincennes
area of eastern Paris
. The company creates new theatrical works using a devising process based on utilizing physical theatre
and improvisation
.
, nuclear warfare was imminent while the whole of Europe was slowly recovering from the destruction of World War II. In 1965 Charles de Gaulle
was re-elected President of France in the first election with universal suffrage. 1968, a watershed year for protests and turmoil around the world, was characterized by rebellion against conventional culture, huge political demonstrations, and labor strikes in France involving 11 million workers, students, and far-left politicians. It was in the middle of this period of uncertainty, changing cultural attitudes, and disillusionment that Mnouchkine, a student in Paris, started Le Theatre du Soleil with her peers who were interested in creating original theatre.
1964–65:
Les Petits Bourgeois presented at Théâtre Mouffetard
1965–66:
Capitaine Fracasse presented at the Theater Récamier
1967:
La Cuisine presented at Cirque de Montmartre
1968:
Le Songe d'une Nuit d'Ete (A Midsummer's Night's Dream)
L'Arbre Sorcier, Jerome et la Tortue
1969–70:
Les Clowns presented at Festival d'Avignon, Piccolo Teatro de Milan
1970–1971:
Le Theatre du Soleil moves to their permanent base, la Cartoucherie, a former munitions factory on the outskirts of Paris
1789 opens in La Cartoucherie.
1974:
Film version of 1789 released
1975:
L'Age d'Or
1976–77:
Don Juan
1979–80:
Mephisto, Le Roman d'une Carriere
1981–84:
Translated works of Shakespeare are presented in cycles, including Richard II and Henry IV Parts 1 and 2
1985–86:
L'Histoire Terrible Mais Inachevee de Norodom Sihanouk
, Roi du Cambodge
1987–88:
L'Indiade ou L'Inde de leurs Reves
1989:
Film version of La Nuit Miraculeuse
1990–93:
Cycle Les Atrides (including Ipighenie a Aulis, Agamemnon, Les Choephores, and Les Eumenides)
1993:
L'Inde, de Pere en Fils, de Mere en Fille
1994:
La Ville perjure ou le Reveil des Erinyes
1996–97:
Film Au Soleil Meme la Nuit
1997–98:
Et Soudain des Nuits d'Eveil
Tout est Bien qui Finit Bien
1999–2002:
La Ville Parjure ou le Reveil des Erinyes
Tambours sur la Digue
2003–2006:
Le Derner Caravanserail (Odyssees)
Le Fleuve Cruel
Origines et Destins
2007–2009:
Les Ephemeres
2008 :
Film L'Aventure du Theatre du Soleil
2010–2011:
Les Naufrages du Fol Espoir (reached 200th performance in February 2011)
March 19–22 – Japanese kyogen
troupe, hosted by Le Theatre du Soleil at La Cartoucherie, performs traditional kyogen pieces and an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors
May 4 – Company tour begins in Nantes
The company's productions have included both re-imaginings of classics of Western theatre such as Shakespeare's Richard II and Moliere's Tartuffe, but the company is equally well-known for their original works. The collective, consisting of 70 members as of July 2009, takes the concept and direction for their original productions from founder Ariane Mnouchkine, and works together in a collaborative rehearsal process that stretches out over many months to create a finished performance event. For example, their six-hour-long 2005 production Le Dernier Caravansérail (Odyssées) was based on a compilation of letters and interviews collected by Mnouchkine and her colleagues from refugee camps from around the world, while Les Ephemeres in 2009 was based on nine months of improvisations stemming from Mnouchkine's question: What would you do if you found out that all of humanity would die out within three months?
At other times, they provocatively, directly comment on contemporary events, such as their production of Tartuffe in which the title character was presented as an Islamic zealot at a time when there was a movement in France against foreign immigration. They have drawn inspiration from non-Western cultures, such as when they used bunraku-style puppetry in their production Tambours sur la Digue. The company's emphasis on movement and physical theatre is in part due to Mnouchkine's study under Jacques Lecoq. Their performances also frequently feature direct contact between the actors and the audience members, whether through a dressing and makeup area that is open to the public's view or lunch for both actors and audience served at intermission.
Beyond their production process, part of the company's philosophy includes communal living and a complete lack of hierarchy for every member of the organization. All employees, whether actors, administrators, or technicians, are paid the exact same wage, and must sometimes go without a salary for months when the company is not performing and earning income. The company lives together in shared housing and equally shares the work of cooking, cleaning, and otherwise maintaining their living space. In addition, all performers do technical work on productions, such as maintaining moving set pieces for Les Ephemeres.
One of the company's most recent major works was their production of Les Ephemeres created and directed by Ariane Mnouchkine. The show premiered at the 2009 Lincoln Center Festival. Les Ephemeres is centered around the river of time with its events both past and present. The Village Voice characterized the show's theme as "To go with the flow, to accept the fact that time is the great devastator. Tout passe, tout casse, tout basse, says a French proverb: Everything passes, everything breaks, everything sinks." The performance is split in two three-and-a-half-hour-long sections with the full run time just over seven hours long.
Senior members such as Mnouchkine are not given preferential treatment. Mnouchkine, for example, refused to be interviewed alone for a New York Times article, although individuals such as Helene Cixous (playwright) and Jean-Jacques Lemetre (composer and musician) repeatedly fulfill specific production roles and have done so for many years.
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
stage ensemble founded by Ariane Mnouchkine
Ariane Mnouchkine
Ariane Mnouchkine is a world-renowned French stage director. She founded the Parisian avant-garde stage ensemble Théâtre du Soleil in 1964. She has written and directed 1789 and Molière , and in 1989, she directed La Nuit Miraculeuse...
, Philippe Léotard
Philippe Léotard
Philippe Léotard was a French actor, poet, and singer....
and fellow students of the L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq
L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq
L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq is a school of physical theatre situated in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. Founded in 1956 by Jacques Lecoq, the school is a professional two-year course...
in 1964 as a collective of theatre artists. Le Théâtre du Soleil is located at La Cartoucherie, a former munitions factory in the Vincennes
Vincennes
Vincennes is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe.-History:...
area of eastern Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. The company creates new theatrical works using a devising process based on utilizing physical theatre
Physical theatre
Physical theatre is used to describe any mode of performance that pursues storytelling or drama through primarily and secondarily physical and mental means. There are several quite distinct but indistinct traditions of performance which all describe themselves using the term "physical theatre",...
and improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
.
Sociohistorical context
The Theatre du Soleil was founded as a theatre collective in 1964, in the midst of cultural turmoil that was sweeping the western world. With the capitalist west and the Communist east locked in the midst of the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, nuclear warfare was imminent while the whole of Europe was slowly recovering from the destruction of World War II. In 1965 Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
was re-elected President of France in the first election with universal suffrage. 1968, a watershed year for protests and turmoil around the world, was characterized by rebellion against conventional culture, huge political demonstrations, and labor strikes in France involving 11 million workers, students, and far-left politicians. It was in the middle of this period of uncertainty, changing cultural attitudes, and disillusionment that Mnouchkine, a student in Paris, started Le Theatre du Soleil with her peers who were interested in creating original theatre.
Timeline
May 29, 1964: Le Theatre du Soleil is established1964–65:
Les Petits Bourgeois presented at Théâtre Mouffetard
1965–66:
Capitaine Fracasse presented at the Theater Récamier
1967:
La Cuisine presented at Cirque de Montmartre
1968:
Le Songe d'une Nuit d'Ete (A Midsummer's Night's Dream)
L'Arbre Sorcier, Jerome et la Tortue
1969–70:
Les Clowns presented at Festival d'Avignon, Piccolo Teatro de Milan
1970–1971:
Le Theatre du Soleil moves to their permanent base, la Cartoucherie, a former munitions factory on the outskirts of Paris
1789 opens in La Cartoucherie.
1974:
Film version of 1789 released
1975:
L'Age d'Or
1976–77:
Don Juan
1979–80:
Mephisto, Le Roman d'une Carriere
1981–84:
Translated works of Shakespeare are presented in cycles, including Richard II and Henry IV Parts 1 and 2
1985–86:
L'Histoire Terrible Mais Inachevee de Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk regular script was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his semi-retirement and voluntary abdication on 7 October 2004 in favor of his son, the current King Norodom Sihamoni...
, Roi du Cambodge
1987–88:
L'Indiade ou L'Inde de leurs Reves
1989:
Film version of La Nuit Miraculeuse
1990–93:
Cycle Les Atrides (including Ipighenie a Aulis, Agamemnon, Les Choephores, and Les Eumenides)
1993:
L'Inde, de Pere en Fils, de Mere en Fille
1994:
La Ville perjure ou le Reveil des Erinyes
1996–97:
Film Au Soleil Meme la Nuit
1997–98:
Et Soudain des Nuits d'Eveil
Tout est Bien qui Finit Bien
1999–2002:
La Ville Parjure ou le Reveil des Erinyes
Tambours sur la Digue
2003–2006:
Le Derner Caravanserail (Odyssees)
Le Fleuve Cruel
Origines et Destins
2007–2009:
Les Ephemeres
2008 :
Film L'Aventure du Theatre du Soleil
2010–2011:
Les Naufrages du Fol Espoir (reached 200th performance in February 2011)
March 19–22 – Japanese kyogen
Kyogen
is a form of traditional Japanese comic theater. It developed alongside Noh, was performed along with Noh as an intermission of sorts between Noh acts, on the same Noh stage, and retains close links to Noh in the modern day; therefore, it is sometimes designated Noh-kyōgen...
troupe, hosted by Le Theatre du Soleil at La Cartoucherie, performs traditional kyogen pieces and an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors
May 4 – Company tour begins in Nantes
Mission and Philosophy
The Theatre du Soleil was founded in the 1960s as a reaction against traditional theatrical institutions in France. Although they have never presented a formalized mission statement, from their inception they have been characterized by a commitment to long-term collaborative rehearsal processes; the merging of a wide variety of art forms both Western and non-Western, including music, dance, and puppetry; actively communicating and mingling with their audiences; and maintaining a large, hierarchy-free company that lives together and equally shares the work of creating their productions. Company members describe working for the Theatre du Soleil as "a style of life", while a reviewer for The New York Times said of their production Les Ephemeres: "The aim here is not to shape life into taut dramatic form but to present lived experience intimately and without evidence of artists' interpretation and manipulation." Mnouchkine summarized the philosophy of the organization as "Theatre du Soleil is the dream of living, working, being happy and searching for beauty and for goodness….It's trying to live for higher purposes, not for richness. It's very simple, really."The company's productions have included both re-imaginings of classics of Western theatre such as Shakespeare's Richard II and Moliere's Tartuffe, but the company is equally well-known for their original works. The collective, consisting of 70 members as of July 2009, takes the concept and direction for their original productions from founder Ariane Mnouchkine, and works together in a collaborative rehearsal process that stretches out over many months to create a finished performance event. For example, their six-hour-long 2005 production Le Dernier Caravansérail (Odyssées) was based on a compilation of letters and interviews collected by Mnouchkine and her colleagues from refugee camps from around the world, while Les Ephemeres in 2009 was based on nine months of improvisations stemming from Mnouchkine's question: What would you do if you found out that all of humanity would die out within three months?
At other times, they provocatively, directly comment on contemporary events, such as their production of Tartuffe in which the title character was presented as an Islamic zealot at a time when there was a movement in France against foreign immigration. They have drawn inspiration from non-Western cultures, such as when they used bunraku-style puppetry in their production Tambours sur la Digue. The company's emphasis on movement and physical theatre is in part due to Mnouchkine's study under Jacques Lecoq. Their performances also frequently feature direct contact between the actors and the audience members, whether through a dressing and makeup area that is open to the public's view or lunch for both actors and audience served at intermission.
Beyond their production process, part of the company's philosophy includes communal living and a complete lack of hierarchy for every member of the organization. All employees, whether actors, administrators, or technicians, are paid the exact same wage, and must sometimes go without a salary for months when the company is not performing and earning income. The company lives together in shared housing and equally shares the work of cooking, cleaning, and otherwise maintaining their living space. In addition, all performers do technical work on productions, such as maintaining moving set pieces for Les Ephemeres.
Major Works
The Theatre du Soleil's premiere performance was in 1964–65 with Les Petits Bourgeois. The company's first widely recognized production was in 1967 with Wesker's The Kitchen. They continued on to form a theatre collective and produce their first major success 1789, a show about the French Revolution. Their performance suggested "the Revolution was subverted by those more concerned about property than justice". Another of the company's most famous works was Les Atrides. This was made up of Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis and Aeschylus' The Oresteia. The production took over two years to mount, played in numerous countries including the United States and Germany, and integrated several forms of Asian dance and drama. In 2005, Le Theatre du Soleil presented Le Dernier Caravanserail (Odyssees) or The Last Caravansary (Odysseys).One of the company's most recent major works was their production of Les Ephemeres created and directed by Ariane Mnouchkine. The show premiered at the 2009 Lincoln Center Festival. Les Ephemeres is centered around the river of time with its events both past and present. The Village Voice characterized the show's theme as "To go with the flow, to accept the fact that time is the great devastator. Tout passe, tout casse, tout basse, says a French proverb: Everything passes, everything breaks, everything sinks." The performance is split in two three-and-a-half-hour-long sections with the full run time just over seven hours long.
Major Players
While Ariane Mnouchkine, acknowledged as the founder of the troupe, regularly acts as the company's concept creator and director, a number of her fellow students were also her collaborators in the initial founding of the company, including:- Georges Donzenac—physical training, physical education teacher
- Myrrha Donzenac—actress
- Martine Franck—photographer
- Gerard Hardy—actor
- Philippe Leotard—actor
- Roberto Moscoso—designer
- Jean-Claude Penchenat—actor, director
- Jean-Pierre Tailhade—actor
- Francoise Tournafond—costume designer
Senior members such as Mnouchkine are not given preferential treatment. Mnouchkine, for example, refused to be interviewed alone for a New York Times article, although individuals such as Helene Cixous (playwright) and Jean-Jacques Lemetre (composer and musician) repeatedly fulfill specific production roles and have done so for many years.
See also
- Ariane MnouchkineAriane MnouchkineAriane Mnouchkine is a world-renowned French stage director. She founded the Parisian avant-garde stage ensemble Théâtre du Soleil in 1964. She has written and directed 1789 and Molière , and in 1989, she directed La Nuit Miraculeuse...
- Philippe LeotardPhilippe LéotardPhilippe Léotard was a French actor, poet, and singer....
- Jacques LecoqJacques LecoqJacques Pierre Lecoq born in Paris, was a French actor, mime and acting instructor.He is most famous for his methods on physical theatre, movement and mime that he taught at the school he founded in Paris, L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq from 1956 until his death in...
- Helene CixousHélène CixousHélène Cixous is a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician. She holds honorary degrees from Queen's University and the University of Alberta in Canada; University College Dublin in Ireland; the University of York and University College...
- Physical theatrePhysical theatrePhysical theatre is used to describe any mode of performance that pursues storytelling or drama through primarily and secondarily physical and mental means. There are several quite distinct but indistinct traditions of performance which all describe themselves using the term "physical theatre",...
- MoliereMolièreJean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
- BunrakuBunraku, also known as Ningyō jōruri , is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theater, founded in Osaka in 1684.Three kinds of performers take part in a bunraku performance:* Ningyōtsukai or Ningyōzukai—puppeteers* Tayū—the chanters* Shamisen players...