la revue de presse - Le Théâtre du Soleil

Théâtre du Soleil in AfghanistanA discussion with Ariane Mnouchkine,Robert Kluyver, and Anthony RichterThe following remarks are edited and condensedfrom a panel discussion held on July 28, 2005,at the Open Society Institute in New York. Theparticipants included Ariane Mnouchkine,director of the Théâtre du Soleil; AnthonyRichter, OSI associate director and director of theCentral Eurasia Project; and Robert Kluyver,executive director of the Foundation for Cultureand Civil Society, OSI’s principal partner andrepresentative in Afghanistan. Mnouchkine’scompany had recently completed a three-weekacting workshop in Kabul in collaboration withthe Foundation for Culture and Civil Society.anthony richter I am familiar with therole culture plays in shaping public space, infostering intellectual exchange, and in developingfreedom of expression. But in Afghanistanour engagement is focused, as the nameof the Foundation for Culture and CivilSociety suggests, on the overlap between cultureand social engagement — the essence ofAriane Mnouchkine’s work. When we werefirst approached by Elizabeth Hayes and theFrench American Cultural Exchange, withoutwhom none of this would have been possible,Elizabeth and I thought it might be interestingto introduce the Théâtre du Soleil to colleaguesin Afghanistan who are also trying tobring together culture and social engagement.That’s how we got here today, as our friendscan tell you.robert kluyver One day last November,Elizabeth and Anthony suggested I go toParis to see the Théâtre du Soleil’s productionof Le dernier caravansérail and talk with Arianeabout any possible cooperation. It seemedlike a wonderful idea — maybe not somethingthat would happen right away, but it was agood idea in any case to take a day to see thecompany’s work and meet with Ariane. I livein France, and as you know the Théâtre duSoleil is the foremost French theater group,which in its forty years has put on incredibleproductions. I went to the theater piece, withoutknowing anything about it beforehand,and I was extremely surprised to see that therewas so much focus on Afghanistan, where Ihad been working and living for the last fiveyears — so much emphasis, in fact, that manyof the actors had learned their lines in Farsi.Of course it’s a very multinational troupe, andsome of its members are native Farsi speakers.But I thought it was an incredible effort — notonly to understand the language, but alsoto understand the culture, and the place inAfghanistan. I thought, why and how did shefind all these Afghan actors? They were evenspeaking with Afghan accents, not even Iranianaccents. We had this wonderful discussionand found out that the basis of Ariane’swork on the production was a true passion forAfghanistan — which, as Ariane will tell us, isalso shared by many actors in the group. AndAriane Mnouchkineat Théâtre duSoleil’s workshop inAfghanistan, 2005.Courtesy of DuccioBellugi-Vannuccini67