july-2010

André Malraux, writer and mid-century minister of culture,
once likened France’s theatre to a palace, in the dignity of its
proportions and the magnitude of its moral architecture. He
may not have meant this entirely as a compliment (he was
turning the nation’s theatre on its head at the time) but it does
make it all the more appropriate that France’s longest-standing
theatre festival takes place in and around an actual palace: the
Palace of the Popes in Avignon.
In a sense, Avignon doesn’t need the festival. This gorgeous
city, with its Mediterranean climate, Gothic churches and fi ne
restaurants, was drawing enthusiastic crowds long before
festival founder Jean Vilar fi rst put on a couple of shows in 1947,
in the Palace’s spectacular Cour d’Honneur.
The historic city centre, built mostly during the 14th-century
tenure of the Avignon popes, still has honey-coloured medieval
buildings that refl ect and echo the sunshine, the Pont d’Avignon
(familiar from every fi rst French lesson), a plethora of museums
and galleries, and pit stops such as Michelin-starred La Mirande
(in a former cardinals’ palace) or the more informal L’Isle
Sonnante, for tourists in need of sustenance after a surfeit of
culture and sunshine. The wines of the surrounding region,
fruity white viogniers and the powerful, peppery, syrah-based
reds of the northern Rhône, are a draw in themselves.
But Avignon also has a wonderful festival. This year, artistic
directors Hortense Archambault and Vincent Baudriller have
appointed two associate artists, the writer Olivier Cadiot and
32 METROPOLITAN
- INSIDER -
THE
AVIGNON
FESTIVAL
A packed programme of theatre
gives the former seat of the popes an
embarrassment of cultural riches,
finds Nina Caplan
director Christoph Marthaler, who have done their considerable
best to pull together an eclectic and challenging programme
from musical theatre to comedy to Shakespeare. There are also
classical and modern concerts, dance (including a premiere
from Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker), as well as plays by Brecht,
Ionesco and Kafka to make the spirit of Vilar proud.
With all this cerebral activity liable to make a festival-goer
ravenous, the food and wines of the region will be much in
evidence. There is even, for the dedicated hedonist, a Bastille
Day Ball, with live entertainment on the banks of the Rhône.
For a grand fi nale, we get Shakespeare’s Richard II, a sharply
contemporary production of a play about a man whose troubled
rule across the Channel coincided with the building of the
Palace of the Popes. Denis Podalydès plays the king which, given
that he is a member of the Comédie Française, makes four
hallowed institutions – the other three are Shakespeare, the
papacy and the English monarchy – involved in one production.
In an avant-garde theatre festival. Which is exactly
the kind of contradiction that keeps Avignon interesting.
Festival d’Avignon runs from July 7-27, festival-avignon.com
Between July 10 and September 11, 2010 Eurostar will run
direct weekly Saturday services from St Pancras and
Ashford International to Avignon Centre station, in just six hours.
On other days of the week there’s just one quick change in Lille.
For more information see page 120 or visit eurostar.com