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THE SEAGULL
TOUR 2012/2013
BY ANTON CHEKHOV
Centre Dramatique National
Orléans/Loiret/Centre
25/27 Sep 2012
DIRECTION
ARTHUR NAUZYCIEL
Théâtre national de Bordeaux en
Aquitaine, CDN
2/5 Oct 2012
La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand,
Scène nationale
10/12 Oct 2012
Le Parvis, Scène nationale Tarbes
Pyrénées
18/19 Oct 2012
le phénix, Scène nationale de
Valenciennes
7/9 March 2013
Le Préau Centre Dramatique
Régional de Basse-Normandie – Vire
14 March 2013
CREATION in the Cour
d’Honneur of the Pope’s
Palace, Avignon Festival 2012
PRODUCTION
Comédie de Reims, CDN
21/22 March 2013
Direction Arthur Nauzyciel
Théâtre d’Orléans
Bd Pierre Ségelle, 45000 Orléans
Tel : + 33 (0) 2 38 62 15 55
Théâtre National de Nice, CDN
11/13 April 2013
CENTRE DRAMATIQUE NATIONAL
ORLÉANS/LOIRET/CENTRE
Anne Cuisset, secretary general
[email protected]
Sophie Mercier, administrator
[email protected]
Press
Nathalie Gasser
+33 (0)6 07 78 06 10
[email protected]
Press / Avignon Festival
Cloître Saint-Louis | 20, rue du portail
Boquier 84000 Avignon
Tel : +33 (0)4 90 27 66 53 / 54
Fax : + 33 (0)4 90 27 66 93
[email protected]
www.festival-avignon.com
Théâtre de
Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines,
Scène nationale
4/6 April 2013
CDDB-Théâtre de Lorient, CDN
17/18 April 2013
Maison des Arts de Créteil
24/.27 April 2013
THE SEAGULL
By Anton CHEKHOV
Direction and adaptation
Arthur Nauzyciel
Choreography Damien Jalet
Set Riccardo Hernandez
Lighting Scott Zielinski
Sound Xavier Jacquot
Costumes José Lévy
Masks Erhard Stiefel
Music Winter Family and
Matt Elliott
Cast
Marie-Sophie Ferdane Nina
(of the Comédie-Française)
Xavier Gallais Tréplev
Vincent Garanger Dorn
Benoit Giros Shamrayev
Adèle Haenel Masha
Mounir Margoum Medvédenko
Laurent Poitrenaux Trigorin
Dominique Reymond Arkadina
Emmanuel Salinger Sorin
Catherine Vuillez Paulina
Translated from Russian by André
Markowicz and Françoise Morvan
(Actes Sud, 1996)
PRODUCTION
Production: Centre Dramatique
National Orléans/Loiret/Centre
Coproduction: Festival d’Avignon;
Région Centre; CDDB-Théâtre de
Lorient, CDN; Théâtre de Saint-Quentinen-Yvelines, Scène nationale; Maison
des Arts de Créteil; Le Parvis, Scène
nationale Tarbes-Pyrénées; Le Préau
Centre Dramatique Régional de BasseNormandie – Vire; le phénix, Scène
nationale de Valenciennes; MCB°
Bourges, Scène nationale; Théâtre
National de Norvège; France Télévisions.
With the support of Ville d’Orléans and
Institut Français.
The set has been built in the workshops
of the MCB° Bourges, Scène nationale.
With the participation of the atelier
Caraco Canezou for the costumes.
ABOUT THE SEAGULL
From A. F. Koni to Chekhov
November 6, 1896. (Excerpt)
From Chekhov to A. S. Suvorin, Melihovo
October 21, 1895. (Excerpt)
“Honoured Anton Pavlovich, maybe my
letter will surprise you, however even if
I am overworked, I can’t refuse myself
the desire of writing to you about your
Seagull which I finally saw. I have heard
(by Savina) that the reception of the
audience has given you much grief.
Please allow a member of the audience
– a profane, maybe in literature and
dramatic art, but who knows life by
experience – to say that he thanks you
for the deep joy your play gave him. The
Seagull is a work whose conception,
freshness of ideas and thoughtful
observations of life situations raise
it out of the ordinary. It is life itself
on stage with all its tragic alliances,
eloquent thoughtlessness and silent
sufferings – the sort of everyday life that
is accessible to everyone and understood
in its cruel internal irony by almost no
one, the sort of life that is so accessible
and close to us that at times you forget
you’re in a theater and you feel capable of
participating in the conversation taking
place in front of you. And how good the
ending is! How true to life it is that not
she, the seagull, commits suicide (which
a run-of-the-mill playwright, out for his
audience’s tears, would be sure to have
done), but the young man who lives in
an abstract future and “has no idea” of
the why and wherefore of what goes on
around him. I also very much like the
device of cutting off the play abruptly,
leaving the spectator to sketch in the
dreary, listless, indefinite future for
himself. This is how end, or to say it
better, are revealed the epic works. Yet
maybe you will shrug your shoulders .
You could not care less about my opinions
and why do I write to you ? Here is why :
I love you for these minutes of deep
emotion you and your works gave me and
from afar and at random I want to say a
word of sympathy which maybe you don’t
need.
Your devoted. A. Koni.”
“Can you imagine it, I am writing a play
which I shall probably not finish before
the end of November. I am writing it
not without pleasure, though I swear
fearfully at the conventions of the stage.
It’s a comedy, there are three women’s
parts, six men’s, four acts, landscapes
(a view over a lake) ; a great deal of
conversation about literature, little
action, tons of love.”
Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov was born in 1860, in
Taganrog, on the Sea of Azov, in a family
of small merchants. He was raised in
poverty and fearing a violent father.
Chekhov began medical studies at the
University of Moscow while providing
for the needs of his family. In 1880 he
began to write novellas under various
pen names. In 1884 he qualified as
a physician. The same year his first
collection, TALES OF MELPOMENE was
published and the second one MOTLEY
STORIES in 1886.
Suffering from tuberculosis, he would
travel a lot during his life to find a
milder climate. He wrote PLATONOV at
the age of eighteen, a play unfinished,
unpublished and performed only after
his death. It will be his inspiration for
IVANOV his first published play in
1887, performed in Moscow and Saint
Petersburg. In spite of the illness he
travelled through Siberia to the penal
settlement of Sahalin in 1890. Several
writings would evoke the convicts
conditions of life. His short stories then
his plays made him very famous during
his lifetime.
THE SEAGULL was the first of his great
plays and confirmed his collaboration
with Stanislavski and Nemirovich
Datchenko : it was a fiasco when first
created in St. Petersburg but was a
great success at the Moscow Art Theatre
in 1899. UNCLE VANYA (1899), THE
THREE SISTERS (1900) and THE
CHERRY ORCHARD (1904) followed.
Anton Chekhov married the actress Olga
Knipper in 1901. He died of tuberculosis
during a cure at Badenweiler in Germany
in 1904.
Arthur Nauzyciel
It is his encounter with Antoine Vitez
at the School of the Théâtre national de
Chaillot that decides Arthur Nauzyciel to
live in the world of theatre.
He becomes an actor and associate
artist at the CDDB-Théâtre de Lorient
and founds his company 41751/Arthur
Nauzyciel to become a stage director. His
very first show was THE IMAGINARY
INVALID OR THE SILENCE OF
MOLIÈRE (1999). In 2003, he stages
HAPPY DAYS by Samuel Beckett with
Marilù Marini. The performance was
presented at the Odéon-Théâtre de
l’Europe in Paris and at the Theatre
San Martin of Buenos Aires. In 2004,
he directed HELDENPLATZ, marking
the introduction of Thomas Bernhard
in the Comédie-Française repertory. In
2008, he staged ORDET (THE WORD)
by Kaj Munk at the Avignon festival.
The performance has been reprised at the
Théâtre du Rond-Point for the Autumn
festival of Paris in 2009. In July 2010
he created JAN KARSKI (MY NAME IS
A FICTION) adapted from the novel by
Yannick Haenel at the Avignon festival.
In 2011 he staged HUNGER after Knut
Hamsun by Xavier Gallais at the Théâtre
de la Madeleine in Paris.
He has frequently worked in the United
States since 2001, where he directed in
Atlanta Bernard-Marie Koltès’ BLACK
BATTLE WITH DOGS, reprised in
Chicago in 2004, in the festivals of
Avignon and Athens in 2006 and at the
CDN in Orléans and then ROBERTO
ZUCCO (2004). In Boston, he directs at
the American Repertory Theater Mike
Leigh’s ABIGAIL’S PARTY (2007) and
Shakespeare’s JULIUS CAESAR (2008).
Presented for the first time in France
in 2009 at the CDN in Orléans and in
the Autumn festival of Paris, JULIUS
CAESAR created with a cast of American
actors and a jazz trio still tours abroad.
It is in Dublin that he directs in 2006
THE IMAGE by Samuel Beckett for
the opening of the Beckett Centenary
festival. Created with the choreographer
Damien Jalet and the actress Anne
Brochet then Lou Doillon, it has been
presented in Reykjavik, New York, Paris.
Associate writer of the CDN, Marie
Darrieussecq writes for him her first
play, THE SEA MUSEUM that he directs
at the National Theatre of Iceland in
Reykjavik in 2009. He has been invited
by Franco Quadri to direct a project with
young European actors within L’Ecole
des Maîtres: he chose A DOLL’S HOUSE
by Ibsen at the fall 2009.
In april 2012 he directs ABIGAIL’S
PARTY by Mike Leigh with the actors of
the Norway National Theatre in Oslo.
He works also for dance and opera.
In November 2011, he staged RED
WATERS, the first opera composed
by the duet Lady & Bird (Keren Ann
Zeidel and Bardi Johannsson) and
collaborated at the creation of PLAY, by
choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and
dancer Shantala Shivalingappa (2011).
For every creation, he gathers artists
from different universes: Damien Jalet,
Winter Family, Matt Elliott, Christian
Fennesz, Miroslaw Balka, Sjon, Erna
Omarsdottir, l’Ensemble Organum,
Gaspard Yurkievich.
He was a Villa Medicis Hors-les-Murs
scholar.
JAN KARSKI (MY NAME IS A FICTION)
received the Georges-Lerminier prize
(best creation outside Paris).
He is director of the Centre Dramatique
National Orléans/Loiret/Centre since
2007.
After BLACK BATTLES WITH
DOGS in 2006, ORDET (THE WORD)
in 2008, JAN KARSKI (MY NAME
IS A FICTION) in 2011, Arthur
Nauzyciel is invited for the fourth
time by the Avignon Festival to
present THE SEAGULL in the Cour
d’honneur of the Popes’ Palace.
NOTE
“Flowers never die.
Heaven is whole.
But ahead of us we’ve only
somebody’s word.”
Ossip Mandelstam.
Over the empty earth.
To answer the question “Why put on
The Seagull?” amounts to answering the
question “Why or how to make theatre,
for me, today? What story can I tell
after Jan Karski?” In that – potentially
surprising – choice lies of course an
answer to the invitation to produce a
play in the Cour d’honneur of the Papal
Palace. What kind of discourse would I
adopt, what kind of voice would be heard,
and what kind of material would I rely
on? The Seagull touches on art, love,
and the meaning of our lives. A play
about art, in other words on the spiritual
dimension of art and its necessity in our
lives, our wasted or absurd lives that only
beauty, dreams and poetry may at times
brighten. And hope. It should suffice. It
ends with the death of a young man, an
artist, and that is precisely how we will
begin the play.
In Art, as in life, there is neither
beginning nor end, the line is not
horizontal, the story not linear, it
is a haze flecked with gaps, images,
stridencies and flashes. The ending of
the play IS the beginning of our show.
The play will be rebuilt on the body of its
lead character, an idealistic artist and
intractable dreamer, hurt and appalled
by the cruelty of the world and beings
around him, who has chosen to end his
life. Before the Papal Palace, a kind of
spectral Château de Laze, there will be
a ceremony, and a sad, graceful dance
will be performed to welcome him and
go through his life again, to relive the
events that have led him there, to the
world of the dead. Of course, it also
corresponds to the end of Ordet, and of
Jan Karski: speaking as a way to bring
back the dead, with the stage as a locus
of reparation, conjuring up the missing,
for the fragile yet so overwhelming
consolation it may bring. Chekhov’s
writing repairs and saves. The way he
did as a doctor. After caring for suffering
bodies, closing the dead’s eyes, the doctor
he was chose writing and nursing the
souls, attempting to come to terms with
his own demons.
Rather than “illustrate” or “perform”
The Seagull, it is by journeying again
across the play, listening out for the
words in this place today – as in a
memorial ritual, that of the memory of
a lost Seagull – , that it can still stir us.
It is haunted by other plays – Hamlet,
The Oresteia. In a venue of Faith, then of
Theatre haunted by theatre, and by the
voices of those who have preceded us.
For me, these texts, these classics, are
each time a memory of the future, in
the sense that they forever contain the
collective memory of a humanity to be. A
buried world, that of our aspirations and
disillusions: “In a month, in a year, how
will we suffer…”, Berenice says.
A highly symbolist but also epic play,
with a degree of brutality, it also tells the
story of a broken generation, of absent
fathers, of a world killing its artists and,
in them, any possible dream or elevation.
A world in which the Other is loved in
vain, alone, haunted by the issue of
existence. Medvédenko loves Macha who
loves Treplev who loves Nina who loves
Trigorin who is loved by Arkadina, while
Chemraiev loves Paulina who loves Dorn.
It spells disaster. “I have decided to tear
this love of mine out of my heart by the
roots”, Macha says.
Chekhov gives an uncompromising yet
empathetic description of the human
condition – we are the only living
creatures aware of death and the passing
of time, and we share a tremendous need
for love to withstand this awareness, that
of being hopelessly alone, in a position
of solitude that no kind of love will ever
assuage.
The play was written at the time when
film and psychoanalysis were being
invented, and it reflects turn-of-the
century changes that, without being
articulated, surround characters hanging
between longing and anxiety, despair
and hope, shortly before the great wars.
When Chekhov wrote The Seagull,
the whole world was undergoing a
transformation, a world was being rebuilt
on the ending of another. Today we live
among the ruins of the previous century,
in a post-catastrophe world – that is to
say, as Walter Benjamin put it, at the
origin: “The origin does not describe the
becoming of that which emerges into
existence, but rather that which is in
the process of emerging in becoming and
disappearance”. We are in flux. Nina
mentions the Horizon. But our horizon
has moved, we are resigned and skeptical
after the experiences of the past
century. Between utopia and memory,
looking ahead and back, in a horizon of
expectations toward which our actions
and thoughts are turned. The horizon
on the other side of the lake, a locus of
desire, of new, future opportunities, is no
longer there. Today the characters from
The Seagull have become that horizon of
expectations, they haunt the now driedout lake, as in Treplev’s play. In what
used to be a lake, in what might have
been a theatre, a lost humanity tries
not to forget. All they have left is words.
Words, once said, cannot make the space
they have opened up disappear.
“My youth and the feeling that will never
come back any more – the feeling that
I could last forever, outlast the sea, the
earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling
that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love,
to vain effort – to death; the triumphant
conviction of strength, the heat of life in
the handful of dust, the glow in the heart
that with every year grows dim, grows
cold, grows small, and expires – and
expires, too soon – before life itself.”
Joseph Conrad, YOUTH
Arthur Nauzyciel
March 2012
ARTISTIC TEAM
Damien Jalet
Damien Jalet is French and Belgian.
He started his dance career with Wim
Vandekeybus on the show THE DAY OF
HEAVEN AND HELL in 1998. In 2000, he
began an intense collaboration with Sidi
Larbi Cherkaoui as his artistic partner
within the company Les Ballets C de la B.
They co-created RIEN DE RIEN (2000),
FOI (2003), TEMPUS FUGIT (2004),
and MYTH (2006). In 2002 he created
the piece D’AVANT in collaboration with
Cherkaoui, Luc Dunberry and Juan Kruz
Diaz de Garaio Esnaola. He is regularly
collaborating with Erna Ómarsdóttir
(OFAETT, THE UNCLEAR AGE,
TRANSAQUANIA). They codirected for
the prestigious Melbourne Arts Festival
the piece BLACK MARROW for the
Australian dance company Chunky
Move.
He created THREE SPELLS with
dancer Alexandra Gilbert and musician
Christian Fennesz in 2008. In 2010, he
codirected the piece BABEL (WORDS), a
collaboration with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
and Antony Gormley, which received two
Laurence Olivier Awards in 2011.
Damien Jalet and Arthur Nauzyciel
work together since 2006. They created
together THE IMAGE by Samuel
Beckett in 2006, he choreographied
JULIUS CAESAR by Shakespeare
(2008), ORDET (THE WORD) (2008),
THE SEA MUSEUM (LE MUSÉE DE LA
MER) by Marie Darrieussecq, created
in 2009, in which he also played the
part of Bella, JAN KARSKI (MY NAME
IS A FICTION), in 2011. Their latest
cooperation was RED WATERS, an opera
by Lady & Bird (Keren Ann Zeidel and
Bardi Johannsson).
Riccardo Hernandez
Born in Cuba and raised in Buenos Aires,
he studied in the United States, at the
Yale School of Drama. On Broadway,
he designed the sets of THE PEOPLE
IN THE PICTURE (at the legendary
Studio 54), CAROLINE OR CHANGE
by Tony Kushner (reprised at London’s
Royal National Theater), TOPDOG /
UNDERDOG by Suzan-Lori Parks,
ELAINE STRITCH AT LIBERTY
(reprised at the Old Vic in London),
PARADE staged by Hal Prince (Tony and
Drama Desk nominations) NOISE/FUNK,
THE TEMPEST, BELLS ARE RINGING.
The productions he participated in have
been performed in major American
theatres: New York Shakespeare
Festival/Public Theater, Lincoln Center,
BAM, Goodman Theatre (Chicago),
Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Mark
Taper Forum (Los Angeles)...
For the theatre, he worked with directors
Robert Woodruff, Janos Szasz, Ethan
Coen, John Turturro, Ron Daniels,
Diane Paulus, George C. Wolfe, Mary
Zimmerman.
He designed in 2008 the set and
costumes of LOST HIGHWAY staged
by Diane Paulus, based on David Lynch
movie, with a libretto by Elfriede Jelinek
and Olga Neuwirth, presented at the
Young Vic in London, and those of
AUTUMN SONATA by Ingmar Bergman
directed by Robert Woodruff at the Yale
Repertory Theater in 2011.
He works regularly for the opera. He
designed the set for APPOMATTOX
by Philip Glass at the San Francisco
Opera in 2007 and of IL POSTINO, opera
composed by Daniel Catàn and directed
by Ron Daniels, created with Placido
Domingo at the Los Angeles Opera, and
presented at the Théâtre du Chatelet in
Paris in June 2011.
For Arthur Nauzyciel, he created the set
for JULIUS CAESAR by Shakespeare
at the American Repertory Theater in
Boston in 2008, and for JAN KARSKI
(MY NAME IS A FICTION) in 2011.
He is also a Princeton University
Lecturer.
Scott Zielinski
Xavier Jacquot
Scott Zielinski is based in New York and
has created lighting designs for theatre,
dance, and opera throughout the world.
His work in New York includes the
Broadway production of Topdog/Underdog
as well as productions for the Lincoln
Center and The Public Theatre, among
many others. His designs have also been
seen extensively at theatres throughout
many other cities in the United
States. Work outside the U.S. includes
productions in Adelaide, Amsterdam,
Berlin, Edinburgh, Fukuoka, Goteborg,
Hamburg, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Linz,
London, Lyon, Melbourne, Orleans, Oslo,
Ottawa, Paris, Reykjavik, Rotterdam,
Singapore, St. Gallen, Stockholm,
Stuttgart, Toronto, Vienna, Vilnius,
and Zurich.Scott Zielinski received his
Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Design
at the Yale University School of Drama.
For Arthur Nauzyciel, he designed
the lighting of JULIUS CAESAR by
Shakespeare at the American Repertory
Theatre in Boston in 2008, THE SEA
MUSEUM (LE MUSÉE DE LA MER)
by Marie Darrieussecq created at the
National Theatre of Iceland in 2009 and
in July 2011 JAN KARSKI (MY NAME
IS A FICTION) adapted from the novel
by Yannick Haenel at the Avignon
festival. Their latest collaborations were
RED WATERS, an opera by Lady & Bird
(Keren Ann Zeidel and Bardi Johannsson)
and ABIGAIL’S PARTY by Mike Leigh.
Sound designer, he studied at the
Théâtre National in Strasburg. He has
worked regularly with Eric Vigner,
Thierry Collet, Daniel Mesguich, Xavier
Maurel, Stéphane Braunschweig and on
short features for the screen as well as
on films and documentaries for television.
He has chaired the “sound and video”
department of the school of the Théâtre
national in Strasburg from 2005 to 2008.
For Arthur Nauzyciel he designed the
sound for THE IMAGINARY INVALID
OR THE SILENCE OF MOLIÈRE in
1999, BLACK BATTLES WITH DOGS
in 2001, HAPPY DAYS in 2003, ORDET
(THE WORD) in 2008 and JAN KARSKI
(MY NAME IS A FICTION) in 2011.
José Lévy
Erhard Stiefel
A polymorphous artist and free electron.
Alternately designer, fashion designer,
artistic director, interior designer and
artist, José Lévy had excelled in all areas
of the fashion world before expressing
himself in the Fine Arts. Known for his
brand of ready-to-wear clothing José
Lévy in Paris, which made him famous
from the USA to Japan. He was artistic
director of Emanuel Ungaro and Holland
and Holland, and more recently he has
designed for the Manufacture de Sèvres,
the gallery Tools, Emmanuel Perrotin,
Astier de Villatte, Roche Bobois and
Gallery B. Bensimon. He is a scholar of
the Villa Kujoyama and Grand Prize of
the City of Paris.
The design of the costumes of ORDET
(THE WORD) directed by Arthur
Nauzyciel was his first collaboration for a
theatre project, then came JAN KARSKI
(MY NAME IS A FICTION), in 2011.
Erhard Stiefel was born in Zurich in 1940
where he studied drawing and painting
at the university of the Arts. Later on he
joined the Paris school of fine arts then
the Jacques Lecoq school and turned to
sculpture.
Fascinated by the stage and the carnival,
he began creating masks. Consequently
he visited often Bali and above all Japan
where he still has deep relations with
Nô and Kyogen families for which he
recreates ancient and fragile masks. In
1997, the year of Japan, he conceived an
event for the Festival d’Automne and
invited one of the greatest Nô masters,
Kiyokazu Kanze.
In 1997 Ariane Mnouchkine asked him
to work on A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S
DREAM and THE GOLDEN AGE, it was
the beginning of a collaboration with
the Théâtre du soleil that continues to
date. He has made masks for numerous
directors and choreographers such as
Maurice Béjart, Antoine Vitez, Philippe
Avron, Yves Hunstad, Jean-Pierre
Vincent, Jean-Louis Thamin, Christian
Schiaretti, Charles Tordjman, Alfredo
Arias, Zingaro, Eric Vigner and Tim
Robbins.
In 2000 he was appointed “Master of Art”
as mask maker by the French Minister of
Culture.
Winter Family
Matt Elliott
Winter Family is a duo from Jerusalem
and Paris. Ruth Rosenthal & Xavier
Klaine met in Jaffa in 2004 and live and
work together since. Xavier develops
layers of folk drones with his philicorda,
harmoniums, pipe organs, celesta and
a piano, while Ruth Rosenthal chants
her poems and plays the drums into
a mystic universe filled with political
sadness and dark romanticism. They
have been recording and playing live
in clubs, theaters & churches around
Europe and Israel. and worked with
many choreographers,filmmakers,
photographers and visual artists. Their
debut album was out in 2007 at Sub
Rosa and was followed by a LP version in
2008 at Marienbad. It was well received
by critics. Winter Family currently
resides in Crown Heights, the Haitian
neighborhood of Brooklyn. They record
their third salsa album and complete
the english version of JERUSALEM
CAST LEAD a documentary theater
performance (the French version was
performed for the first time at the 104
in Paris in June 2011 and won the Jury
Prize of Impatience Festival).
RED SUGAR, their new album was
released in Summer 2011.
Matt Elliott is an English guitarist and
singer from Bristol, England who plays
dark folk music He also produced and
recorded electronic music under the name
The Third Eye Foundation.
Elliott started recording with the
band Linda’s Strange Vacation, which
included Kate Wright and Rachel Brook,
around the time Wright and Brook
formed Movietone, and Brook and Dave
Pearce formed Flying Saucer Attack.
Elliott was a part time member of both
bands.
He recorded SEMTEX, his first
album under the name The Third Eye
Foundation, and released it on his own
record label, Linda’s Strange Vacation,
with the help of the fledgling Domino
Records.
As Third Eye Foundation, Elliott worked
with bands including Hood, Yann
Tiersen, Mogwai, Ulver, Tarwater, The
Pastels, Navigator, Urchin, Suncoil
Sect, Remote Viewer, Thurston Moore,
primarily as a remixer . In 2001 a
compilation album of his remixes was
released.
In 2003 he released his first album under
his own name, THE MESS WE MADE
which marked a stylistic shift from the
Third Eye Foundation releases. The next
three albums were released as a trilogy
on the French label, ‘Ici, d’ailleurs... By
the release of DRINKING SONGS (2004),
his sound had changed considerably from
his earlier work, now being compared to
Tindersticks and Black Heart Procession.
On Yann Tiersen’s 2009 tour, Elliott was
support act, and later in the show was
part of Yann’s band onstage.
His lastest albums are HOWLING
SONGS, FAILED SONGS, THE DARK
and THE BROKEN MAN.
CAST
Dominique Reymond
Arkadina
Dominique Reymond studied drama in
Geneva before entering the Conservatoire
national supérieur d’art dramatique in
Paris.
On stage, she appeared in THE
SEAGULL, Claudel’s L’ÉCHANGE, and
TARTUFFE directed by Antoine Vitez,
Claudel’s LA VILLE , Ostroswski’s
LA FORÊT directed by Bernard Sobel,
Yasmina Reza’s A SPANISH PLAY,
Ionesco’s THE CHAIRS directed by Luc
Bondy and Tennessee Williams’ THE
NIGHT OF THE IGUANA directed by
Georges Lavaudant. At the 2008 Avignon
festival, she was part of FEUX by August
Stramm, directed by Daniel Jeanneteau
and Marie-Christine Soma.
On TV she appeared in UN PIQUENIQUE CHEZ OSIRIS, MARIE
BONAPARTE) and film work include:
Y AURA T-IL DE LA NEIGE À NOËL ?
by Sandrine Veysset, LES DESTINÉES
SENTIMENTALES by Olivier Assayas,
LA MALADIE DE SACHS by Michel
Deville and ADIEU GARY by Nassim
Amaouche.
She just completed LES ADIEUX À LA
REINE by Benoît Jacquot.
Marie-Sophie Ferdane
(of the Comédie-Française)
Nina
She studied violin at the music
conservatory in Grenoble and graduated
from the drama school ENSATT in Lyon.
She began her theatre career with
directors Richard Brunel and Claudia
Stavisky, before meeting Christian
Schiaretti for THE THREEPENNY
OPERA by Brecht (2004); Paul
Desveaux, THE STORM by Ostrovski
(2005); Jean-Louis Martinelli, BÉRÉNICE
by Racine (2006). In March 2012 she
played in MACBETH by Shakespeare,
directed by Laurent Pelly.
She is a member of the prestigious
Comédie-Française since 2007 and played
under the direction of Lukas Hemleb,
THE MISANTHROPE by Molière; JeanLouis Hourdin, PENSÉES by Jacques
Copeau; Irène Bonnaud, FANNY by
Marcel Pagnol; Pierre Pradinas, THE
FORCED MARRIAGE by Molière;
Muriel Mayette, THE DISPUTE by
Marivaux; Catherine Hiegel, THE
MISER by Molière; Anne Kessler, LES
NAUFRAGÉS by Guy Zilberstein; Dan
Jemmett, GRAND MAGIC by Eduardo
De Filippo; Philippe Meyer, CHANSONS
DES JOURS AVEC ET CHANSONS DES
JOURS SANS; Fausto Paravidino, LA
MALADIE DE LA FAMILLE M.; Laurent
Pelly, THE THREEPENNY OPERA by
Brecht; Emmanuel Daumas, SUMMER
RAIN by Marguerite Duras; Isabel
Osthues, A RESPECTABLE WEDDING
by Bertolt Brecht.
Between 2000 and 2006, she directed four
plays written by young author Sarah
Fourage.
On TV, she was part of ENGRENAGES
directed by Pascal Chaumeil for Canal +
and IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME by Nina
Companeez.
On screen, she worked with Benoît Cohen
in LES ACTEURS ANONYMES and with
Jean Becker in BIENVENUE PARMI
NOUS.
Catherine Vuillez
Paulina
Adèle Haenel
Masha
She studied at the Florent Acting
School before entering the Conservatoire
National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique.
She worked in classical repertory
and contemporary plays with famous
directors such as Jean-Pierre Vincent
(THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO), Roger
Planchon, (Feydeau, Musset, Calaferte)
Klaus Michael Grüber (DANTON’S
DEATH) ; Eric Vigner (THE BONE
HOUSE by Roland Dubillard, THE
YOUNG MAN by Jean Audureau).
Within the Avignon Festival 2009,
she played with Nicolas Bouchaud DISMOI QUELQUE CHOSE (Sujets à vif/
SACD). In 2010 she was alone on stage in
L’ÉVÉNEMENT after the novel by Annie
Ernaux directed by Jean-Michel Rivinoff
followed by UNE BELLE JOURNÉE by
Noëlle Renaude directed by Thomas
Gaubiac and in 2011 THE IDEA OF
NORTH after Glenn Gould staged by
Benoit Giros.
With Arthur Nauzyciel, she played in
THE IMAGINARY INVALID OR THE
SILENCE OF MOLIÈRE and ORDET by
Kaj Munk at the Avignon Festival 2008.
Born in Paris in 1989 from a French
mother and an Austrian father who is
a translator. She took drama class and
at 13 got the first part in the film THE
DEVILS by Christophe Ruggia with
Vincent Rottiers.
In 2007 she was remarkable in Céline
Sciamma’s first film, NAISSANCE DES
PIEUVRES (OCTOPUS BIRTH) for which
she was nominated at the 2008 Césars.
After studies in sociology and economics,
she is back on the screen in 2010 and
2011 with L’APOLLONIDE (MEMORIES
FROM A BROTHEL) by Bertrand
Bonello, EN VILLE by Valérie Mréjen
et Bertrand Schefer, ALYAH by Elie
Wajeman, and TROIS MONDES by
Catherine Corsini, two films presented at
the 2012 Cannes Festival.
Laurent Poitrenaux
Trigorin
Xavier Gallais
Tréplev
He arrived in Paris at the age of eighteen
and entered Theâtre en Actes, Lucien
Marchal’s theatre school. Besides several
participations in films like TOUT VA
BIEN ON S’EN VA by Claude Mouriéras
and D’AMOUR ET D’EAU FRAÎCHE by
Isabelle Czajka, his career is mainly on
stage. He worked under the direction
of Christian Schiaretti as a member of
the troupe of the Comédie de Reims (LE
LABOUREUR DE BOHÊME by Johannes
von Saaz), Thierry Bedard (L’AFRIQUE
FANTÔME by Michel Leiris), Daniel
Jeanneteau (IPHIGÉNIE EN AULIDE by
Racine) and Yves Beaunesne (UNCLE
VANYA by Chekhov and ‘TIS PITY
SHE’S A WHORE) by John Ford). A
regular actor of stagings by Ludovic
Lagarde, he played in almost each of his
productions: TROIS DRAMATICULES by
Samuel Beckett, L’HYMNE by Gyorgy
Schwajda, THE CAUCASIAN CHALK
CIRCLE by Bertolt Brecht, FAUST OU
LA FÊTE ÉLECTRIQUE and OUI DIT
LE TRÈS JEUNE HOMME by Gertrude
Stein, RICHARD III by Peter Verhelst
and THE BÜCHNER TRILOGY. He
created texts by Olivier Cadiot: SŒURS
ET FRÈRES, LE COLONEL DES
ZOUAVES, RETOUR DÉFINITIF ET
DURABLE DE L’ÊTRE AIMÉ, FAIRY
QUEEN, UN NID POUR QUOI FAIRE,
UN MAGE EN ÉTÉ, all directed by
Ludovic Lagarde. Together with François
Berreur he created ÉBAUCHE D’UN
PORTRAIT, based on the diary of JeanLuc Lagarce, for which he received the
Critic’s Prize for Best Actor of the Year
2008. With JAN KARSKI (MY NAME IS
A FICTION), Laurent Poitrenaux worked
again with director Arthur Nauzyciel:
they performed together in BRANCUSI V.
UNITED STATES directed by Éric Vigner
and created at the Festival d’Avignon
in 1996 and played the title role of
Arthur Nauzyciel’s first production
THE IMAGINARY INVALID OR THE
SILENCE OF MOLIÈRE based on Molière
and Giovanni Macchia, in 1999.
He will be in Christian Vincent next film
LES SAVEURS DU PALAIS.
After studying at the Conservatoire
National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique,
he worked with Michel Fau, NONO
by Sacha Guitry; Benoit Lavigne,
ADULTÈRES by Woody Allen and BABY
DOLL by Tennessee Williams; Jean-Luc
Revol, TARTUFFE by Molière; Daniel
Mesguich, LE PRINCE DE HOMBOURG
by Heinrich von Kleist, DU CRISTAL À
LA FUMÉE by Jacques Attali; Jacques
Weber, CYRANO DE BERGERAC by
Edmond Rostand, ONDINE by Jean
Giraudoux and RUY BLAS by Victor
Hugo; Philippe Calvario, ROBERTO
ZUCCO by Bernard-Marie Koltès; Gilbert
Desveaux, LES GRECS by Jean-Marie
Besset; Claude Bacqué, SEPTEMBRE
BLANC by Neil LaBute; Olivier Py,
PROMÉTHÉE ENCHAÎNÉ by Eschyle
He directed SLEEPLESS NIGHTS by
Fedor Dostoievski.
On the screen, he appeared in DEUX
JOURS À TUER and BIENVENUE
PARMI NOUS by Jean Becker, MUSÉE
HAUT, MUSÉE BAS by Jean-Michel
Ribes, REQUIEM POUR UNE TUEUSE
by Jérôme Le Gris.
He has already worked with Arthur
Nauzyciel in ORDET (THE WORD)
created at the 2008 Avignon festival and
in HUNGER by Knut Hamsun presented
in Paris at the théâtre de la Madeleine in
December 2011.
Emmanuel Salinger
Sorin
Vincent Garanger
Dorn
Attended the film school IDHEC and
the drama school directed by Tania
Balachova.
He began his career with the short
film DIS-MOI OUI, DIS-MOI NON
(1989) by Noémie Lvovsky and Arnaud
Desplechin films, LA VIE DES MORTS,
LA SENTINELLE (he co-wrote the
screenplay and received the César for
best newcomer in 1993).
He directed his first film in 2008, LA
GRANDE VIE, with Michel Boujenah and
Laurent Capelluto.
He has been a favorite of the French
“authors” cinema and appeared in LA
REINE MARGOT by Patrice Chéreau,
LES CENTS ET UNE NUITS DE SIMON
CINEMA by Agnès Varda, COMMENT
JE ME SUIS DISPUTÉ... (MA VIE
SEXUELLE) by Arnaud Desplechin.
He also worked with Maria de
Medeiros, CAPITAINES D’AVRIL, Éric
Rohmer, TRIPLE AGENT, Emmanuel
Finkiel, NULLE PART, TERRE
PROMISE. Recently he was seen in,
LE SENTIMENT DE LA CHAIR (2010)
by Roberto Garzelli, LA GUERRE EST
DÉCLARÉE by Valérie Donzelli (2011)
and soon in AU CAS OÙ JE N’AURAIS
PAS LA PALME D’OR by Renaud Cohen.
On stage, he played in FÉLICITÉ by
Jean Audureau and ANTONY AND
CLEOPATRA by Shakespeare, staged
by Pascal Rambert; LA SERVANTE
(Histoire sans fin), written and staged
by Olivier Py; SUMMER RAIN by
Marguerite Duras, staged by Guy
Faucon; TERMINUS by Daniel Keene,
staged by Laurent Laffargue and
ALGER-ALGER after LA GUERRE DES
GUSSES by Georges Mattéi, staged by
Gérard S. Cherqui.
He graduated from the Conservatoire
National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique de
Paris where his teachers were Michel
Bouquet, Gérard Desarthe, and Mario
Gonzalès.
On stage he worked with Jean-Claude
Drouot, HIPPOLYTE OU LE GRAND
PRIX DE PARIS by Joseph Delteil,
KEAN by Jean- Paul Sartre, CYRANO
DE BERGERAC by Edmond Rostand;
Marguerite Duras for the creation
of AGATHA; Alain Françon, THE
WAR PLAYS and COFFEE by Edward
Bond; Christophe Perton, LEAR by
Edward Bond, NOTES DE CUISINE by
Rodrigo Garcia, WOYZECK by Georg
Büchner, LE BELVÉDÈRE by Ödön
von Horváth; Philippe Delaigue, THE
LIFE OF GALILEO by Bertolt Brecht,
JUSTE LA FIN DU MONDE by Jean-Luc
Lagarce, SAGA DES HABITANTS DU
VAL DE MOLDAVIE by Marion Aubert,
DÉSERTION by Pauline Sales.
He was a permanent member of the CDN
of Valence during six years.
Since January 2009, he is codirector
with Pauline Sales of the Préau, Centre
dramatique régional de Basse-Normandie
in Vire. He also plays in the CDR
productions: À L’OMBRE by Pauline
Sales, directed by Philippe Delaigue;
J’AI LA FEMME DANS LE SANG after
Georges Feydeau, directed by Richard
Brunel; TAKING CARE OF BABY by
Dennis Kelly, directed by Olivier Werner.
With Caroline Gonce and Guy Pierre
Couleau, he directed BLUFF by Enzo
Cormann (2011).
Mounir Margoum
Medvédenko
Benoit Giros
Shamrayev
He studied at the Conservatoire National
Supérieur d’art dramatique with Denis
Podalydès, Daniel Mesguich and Joël
Jouanneau. On stage he regularly
works with Jean-Louis Martinelli UNE
VIRÉE, LES FIANCÉS DE LOCHES
and BÉRÉNICE, Lukas Hemleb TITUS
ANDRONICUS, Mathieu Bauer ALTA
VILLA, Laurent Fréchuret À PORTÉE
DE CRACHAT by Taher Najib or with
young stage directors such as Frédéric
Sonntag, Eva Doumbia or Thomas
Quillardet...
On screen he was seen in RENDITION by
Gavin Hood, and HOUSE OF SADDAM,
produced by the BBC and HBO and in
French productions directed by Alain
Tasma, Simon Moutaïrou, Yasmina
Yahiaoui, Houda Benyamina. In 2010, he
directed two short films, HOLLYWOOD
INCH’ALLAH and ROMEO AND JULIET.
He worked with such directors as Eric
Vigner, Jacques Nichet, Bernard Sobel.
During five years he was part of a street
theatre company ECLAT IMMÉDIAT
ET DURABLE. He has been cast in
films directed by Jean-Luc Perréard,
Jean-Louis Bertucelli and by Rachid
Bouchareb in INDIGÈNES. He was
awarded the critics’ prize for best actor
at the Angers Festival for QUAND
TU DESCENDRAS DU CIEL by Eric
Guirado. He worked again with Guirado
in LE FILS DE L’EPICIER in 2007 et
POSSESSIONS in 2012.
In 2009, he created his first staging
L’IDÉE DU NORD (THE IDEA OF
NORTH) by Glenn Gould while he was
associate artist at the Centre Dramatique
National Orléans/Loiret/Centre.
He was a Villa Medicis Hors-les-Murs
scholar in 2008.
His next creation inspired by Jean Renoir
THE RULES OF THE GAME will be
shown at the Orléans CDN next year.
He has already worked with Arthur
Nauzyciel in ORDET (THE WORD) by
Kaj Munk created at the 2008 Avignon
Festival.