above – Théâtre De La Ville, Six Characters in Search of an Author (Photo credit: Michel Chassat)
Review by Jo Tomalin
ForAllEvents.com
Théâtre De La Ville, Six Characters in Search of an Author
(Photo Courtesy of Cal Performances)
Evocative Production of “Six Characters…“
Cal Performances presented Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello, performed by Théâtre de la Ville, the renowned repertory company from Paris, November 7 – 8, 2014. Théâtre de la Ville brought their highly successful production of Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” to Cal Performances in 2012.
Directed by Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota with a sublimely taut mise en scène, Pirandello’s groundbreaking play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, which premiered in 1921, is a delicious crossover of characters in a play within a play…or is it reality?
This riveting fast moving just under two-hour production (no intermission), in French with English surtitles begins with a realistic company of actors and assorted technicians onstage rehearsing a play. The text here is spare, the actors speak French very clearly and there is a lot of interesting physical action, which draws us into the production immediately.
The stage is full of bold theatrical visuals, such as a hanging ledge with painters painting clouds on a screen, a seamstress working at an industrial sewing machine, additional furniture and clutter found at theatre rehearsals plus a director’s table and chair downstage very close to the audience. As the play develops, the ‘rehearsal’ is interrupted by the arrival of an intense family of six characters, seemingly out of nowhere.
A large cast of fifteen highly skilled actors plays the ever demonstrative theatre director (Alain Libolt), theatre technicians (Gérald Maillet, Pascal Vuillemot, Jauris Casanova), actors from the original play the company is rehearsing (Charles-Roger Bour, Sandra Faure, Olivier Le Borgne, Gaëlle Guillou), and the family of six intense characters seeking an author for their own painful real-life story (Hugues Quester, Valérie Dashwood, Sarah Karbasnikoff, Stéphane Krähenbühl, Walter N’guyen, Anna Spycher, and Céline Carrère).
While the family of six characters passionately wants to tell the theatre Director and actors their story, they insist on acting it out themselves, because…well, who else can play their own characters effectively? Certainly not actors…and herein lies the core of this fascinating story.
The stage is completely transformed several times through very creative formations that become beautiful, dramatic, illusory and stark, with Set and Lighting Design by Yves Collet. Wonderfully evocative music and sound effects by Jefferson Lenbeye support the production, which has a cinematic quality at times.
This outstanding production effortlessly journeys through elements of comedic, absurdist, bawdy grotesque Grand Guignol, macabre, philosophical and thought provoking theatre brilliantly led by director Demarcy-Mota. At times there are longer speeches which makes reading the surtitles and following what’s on the stage at the same time, for non French speakers, an adventure. However, it’s all very worthwhile – and the questions in Pirandello’s piece may provoke for some time after, a wonderful aspect of theatre!
More Information:
- Théâtre De La Ville, Paris
- Cal Performances: http://calperformances.org/
Jo Tomalin, Ph.D. reviews Dance, Theatre & Physical Theatre Performances
More Reviews by Jo Tomalin
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