Riding on the crest of the excitement generated by visiting NYC
companies this fall, Paris’ anglophone theater scene is “surfing”
into the second half of the season with renewed energy. Dear Conjunction
marks the arrival of Harold Pinter as the troupe’s sponsor with
a “A Pair of Pinters,” a clever “remix” combining Pinter’s 10-minute “Monologue” with
“Ashes to Ashes,” a one-act piece alluding to the Holocaust, while
updating its tradition of performing works from the French repertoire
with a verse translation of Molière’s “Le Misanthrope.” And, the On Stage company has fun with Anthony Shaffer’s comic
thriller “Sleuth.”
With the gunfire and mortar blasts of Russia’s war in Chechnya
all too easily drowned out by Year 2000 fireworks, “Ashes to Ashes” stands once again as a chilling reminder of how the desire to
ignore human atrocities nevertheless fails to make them go away.
As a couple in black-tie dress for dinner, the woman (Patricia Kessler) reveals to the man (Les Clack) the exact nature of her sexual relations with a former lover.
At the onset, their dispassionate voices clash with the violence
underlying the stark precision of the details she relates. And, while the apathetic tone never changes, her tales turn to
“worse, yet...”.
Although Pinter wrote “Ashes to Ashes” in 1996, he undoubtedly
had the Holocaust in mind, the unfolding of which, from the initial
denial to the final proof of the death camps, indelibly marked
his childhood as a Jewish boy growing up in London. At one point,
the man demands to know by what right the woman, in her comfortable
home, considers herself to be entitled to speak of the horrors
outside. Pinter’s answer? Every living, breathing person is by definition an authority on the nature of the human predicament and so has the right to expose its willful,
massive destruction. Silence, or indeed polite social chatter,
only produce accomplices.
Christian Erickson’s set gives a decidedly funereal ambiance to
the couple’s grotesque “dressing-up” in the face of human suffering, while Clack and Kessler bring the appropriate measure of menacing
composure to their performances. Clack also delivers the “Monologue”
based on Pinter’s recollections of his East End youth.
Although its message is no less pointed, the mood of “The Misanthrope” is considerably lighter. Judging
by present-day news reports, the corruption, political favors
and social-climbing characteristic of Molière’s Paris still exist.
Therein lie the enduring nature of Molière's classics and the
relevance of this modern-dress English adaptation by Tony Harrison.
As in the original, the wit and verve of the text’s rhyming couplets
is a real delight, adding a new dimension to verbal sparring,
which as always sparks at least half of the story’s actions, in
this case world-weary Alceste’s dilemma: should he leave the sycophants and slanderers of Paris behind,
or should he stay to worship the teasing mondaine Célimène? Generally, solid performances are given all ’round, with Lee
Danner playing Célimène and Gay Marshall specially noteworthy
in the role of the morally righteous Arsinoé.
Finally, On Stage gets audiences tied up in knots with “Sleuth,” a whodunit parody that nevertheless revels in the genre. Crime
novelist and gentleman Andrew Wyke invites Milos Tindle, an Italo-Irish West End hairdresser who is also Mrs. Wyke’s
lover, to his estate to make him an interesting proposition: if
Tindle steals Marguerite’s jewels, the cuckolded husband can collect
the insurance money and the coiffeur can keep the lady in the
manner to which she has become accustomed. But, an even bigger
surprise awaits the credulous Tindle... Or, is it Wyke? Excellent
performances by Nick Calderbank (Wyke) and Mike Dineen (Tindle) in this crowd-pleasing comic thriller.
“A Pair of Pinters,” Sun-Wed, 7pm, 50F, “The Misanthrope,” Thu-Sat,
7pm, 100F/70F, Petit Hébertot, 78 bis, bd des Batignolles, 17e,
M&Mac251; Rome/Villiers, tel: 01.44.70.06.69.
“Sleuth,” to Apr 8, Tue-Sat, 9pm, Théâtre de Nesle, 8, rue de
Nesle, 6e, M&Mac251; Odéon/Pont Neuf, 90F/70F, tel: 01.46.34.61.04.
CNAC's Class of ’99
It is traditional for the graduating class of the Centre national des arts du cirque in Châlons-en-Champagne to demonstrate what it’s “made of” in a touring show cum finals
performance, usually placed under the direction of a visiting
artist belonging to an outside discipline. The technical skill,
energy and creative flair generally displayed turned this matriculation-like
demonstration into an eagerly-awaited event, in the performing
arts calendar. In “Vita Nova,” the 13 students of CNAC’s 11th graduating class blend their formal
training as acrobats, jugglers, tightrope walkers and trapeze
artists with the choreography of Héla Fattoumi and Eric Lamoureux which explores the tenuous boundaries between circus, dance and
theater. In a related vein, the Theatre Tattoo draws from a variety
of disciplines in a modern-day rendering of Homer’s “The Odyssey” at Créteil’s Maison des Arts.
“Vita Nova,” to Feb 20, Wed-Sat, 8:30pm, Sun, 4pm, Espace Chapiteaux,
Parc de la Villette, 19e, M&Mac251; Porte de la Villette, 90F, tel: 08.03.07.50.75.
“L'Odyssée,” Feb 24-26, 8:30pm, Maison des Arts André Malreaux,
pl Salvador Allende, Créteil, M&Mac251; Créteil Préfecture, 70-100F, tel: 01.45.13.19.19.
