“Putin is skiing” at the Le Manifeste festival in France
On the industrial northern coast of France, near a nuclear power plant, under occasional orange clouds and the scent of iron (emanating from the local ironworks), amid the calls of seagulls and the relentless coastal wind shaking trees, shrubs, and grass with all its might, the international politically engaged festival “Le Manifeste” takes place in the town of Grande-Synthe for the first ten days of July. The event is designed as a ten-day series of workshops in creative writing, movement theater, drama, music, and visual arts, led this year by artists from France, Denmark, Canada, and the Czech Republic. Participants from various workshops meet at shared evening events, during lunch and dinner, in debates on political topics, or at hotels. The work, which extends throughout the afternoon and late into the night (ending around half past ten in the evening), culminates in the final days with the presentation of the workshops and performances by professional companies.
The goal of Divadlo Líšeň’s theater workshop was to provide participants with the opportunity to devise, develop, and stage their political stance or opinion. Workshop leaders – Pavla Dombrovská (concept, movement, and directing) and visual artist Antonín Maloň – worked mainly with visual means. Two characters, “powerful men,” with folding bodies were created, upon which their “political actions” were depicted and performed in scenes depicting their acquisition or loss of power. Servants – the puppeteers – wore masks to portray them.
The surprising and unusually diverse aspect was the composition of the participants – in our workshop, people ranged in age from fifteen to sixty-six years, with varying experience in theater and from different professions. Similarly, it was the case in other groups; participants were not restricted by age or deterred by the workshop’s focus – the commitment was evidenced by two daring, approximately seventy-year-old dancers who sustained fractures on the first day of the movement workshop. However, this experience did not constitute a fatal obstacle for them, and during the final performance, they proudly presented their work, with plaster on their hands.
The fact that the small town (not only the local hospital) genuinely lived with the festival was evident in the abundant audience attendance – in addition to the seventy workshop participants, several multifunctional halls of Palais du Littoral were filled with an audience consisting of hundreds of people. Divadlo Líšeň was invited to the festival due to the focus of a part of its work on political and human rights topics. Its play “Putin Is Skiing,” based on texts by Anna Politkovskaya, with which the group arrived in Grande-Synthe, describes the methods by which the current Russian president came to power. Despite the texts of the murdered journalist being over ten years old, they acquire relevance in the context of current events. Three performances of “Poutine fait du ski” were held with French subtitles projected on the ceiling in a packed military tent, which is part of the stage. For the French version of the play, we also modified the final scene of the performance – instead of Václav Klaus and President Zeman “kissing” a puppet-Matryoshka of Putin, Marine Le Pen jumped on stage and briefly joined Putin in a golden tub.
In addition to Divadlo Líšeň, the most politically oriented contribution to the end of the festival was the drama performance “Le Maniements des larmes” by French director Nicolas Lambert, whose original script is based on official and unofficial negotiations of European politicians and is a sharp critique of NATO’s interventionist policy. Nicolas was deeply interested in our work, and the feeling was mutual. Interestingly, it was found that the local creators and the audience do not suffer from the demagogic arguments prevalent in our environment – that anyone who criticizes Russia is regarded as an uncritical admirer of America and NATO, and vice versa.
Le Manifeste concluded with a joint event – before saying goodbye to the main organizer of the festival, Brigitte Mounier, as well as all workshop participants and facilitators, a joint meeting was held to evaluate this year’s thirteenth edition of the festival. This fully manifested the community character of the event, attracting people from all over France who repeatedly gather to express an active attitude toward public space and connect with other engaged individuals from various countries. This thematically oriented, community-oriented, and yet broadly focused festival has no equivalent in our environment. In France, however, political themes relentlessly penetrate daily life – near the town where the festival takes place, there is a large refugee camp and an underwater tunnel where several people die each month while attempting to reach England. Terrorist attacks are becoming more frequent, and the country is under a state of emergency. A few days after our return home, we were struck by the news of the brutal terrorist attack in Nice. Such realities provoke an increasing number of people to contemplate how to prevent violence, end wars, for which Europe bears its share of blame, and spread tolerance, understanding, and solidarity.
Report from the French festival Le Manifeste! About Divadlo Líšeň’s workshop at 5:15 PM.
http://www.tele-astv.fr/video-5538-reportages-le-manifeste-11-juillet-2016.html
Pavla Dombrovská
