DThe content of Cirque du Soleil’s latest “creative collective” is easy to summarize. The troupe was founded by Ariane Mnouchkine in 1964 and has been located in a former ammunition factory in the southeastern suburbs of Paris since 1970. “L’Île d’or” is about (take a deep breath here): killing women, opposing masked opponents, conflict in the Middle East, xenophobia in Japan, the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese surveillance of homosexuality, absurd forms of the West Awakening, suppress Hong Kong people Mass protest, Cassandra’s fate in today’s unjust country, the destruction of democracy by populists. There is also the spread of fake news through so-called social networks. And the idealism of abusing young people for criminal purposes. Don’t forget the destruction of natural and cultural heritage by unscrupulous capitalists (please take a deep breath).
The whole world is still centered on the belly button?
According to your taste, the feature of the work is global or centered around the navel, epic or shortness of breath, deep or flat. Golden Island or Bletchland? Let’s start with a formal description. “L’Île d’or” is a box work: the scene in the hospital constitutes the frame. There, the gray-haired Cornelia may be suffering from the new crown virus, and fanatically imagined moving to an imaginary island. The Japanese island’s name, Kanemu-jima, is a half utopia of Thomasmore, a peaceful, sleepy fishing village surrounded by miniature volcanoes, half a cross-section of dark forces that threaten ideal (or idealized) communities around the world today: profitable Pictured business predators, unscrupulous politicians, cruel mafia. A coalition of representatives of these groups hopes to build Kanemushi Island with a hotel, casino, and pier; the mayor and her right hand are resisting it.
Together, these two decisive women will let the villains-both gentlemen-fail their conspiracy. In order to win the favor of the islanders, they organized a drama festival: troops from all over the world gathered in a brick hall to rehearse, which posed a threat to the “development project”. In Cornélia’s head cinema, it constitutes the narrative thread of the island, where guests play scenes-with one exception-imaginary drama: drama in drama.
Where should the wall go?
This allows Mnouchkine and her troops to paint a country’s face and driving force with thick pens-for example, two old hippies from France chanted slogans nakedly, such as: “Amnesty for whales! Down with sushis!” But the most important thing is. However, the grievances that their respective people have to suffer can be whipped.
For example, the “Peace Theater” composed of an Israeli woman and her Palestinian husband is arguing fiercely about the location of its most important stage design element: a wall (attention, symbolic!) for cooperation (with Netanyahu) Or Hamas)’s accusations are divided. An army in Brazil condemned the overexploitation of tropical rainforests, and a group in Hong Kong condemned the control of the democratic movement. The puppet master showed how the warning of the new virus flashed from the commissioners, ministers, and emperors (attention, fables!). Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” dialogue was conducted in Russian and Japanese, and songs were sung in Portuguese or Pashto. Cornelia’s childhood teacher appeared again and again in a single fanatical dream and recited John Donne and other poets. Names like “Sunzi” and “Ibn Battūta” buzz in the room; the soundtrack ranges from flute solo to monster movie music.
If the humility of the message (unlike Putin, Xi Jinping and Trump: mutual respect and help!) is not increased by the simplicity of the 32 actors, then the whole thing may last three hours. As Cornélia, Hélène Cinque embodies a character that has burned out in the penultimate work “Une Chambre en Inde” of “Theater of the Sun”. Her tone, between confusion and breathing difficulties, her gestures, between sleepiness and rage (no intermediate stage), gives the work the frame level, the hospital scene, and some tragic things. Of course: Cornélia is Mnouchkine’s replacement character. She recorded in the diary of “L’Île d’or” what moved her in recent years. But why is it so erratic, so capricious, and so poor imagination?
Kanemujima’s inland scene is influenced by the fact that the locals speak folk French, which imitates Japanese syntax. In addition, the training of the Sun Theater in the traditional No-Theater and its comical variant Kyōgen was widely disseminated by newspapers during the rehearsal stage. Aside from subtle fanfare and terrible gangster laughter, it did not bring the eyes and ears of laymen. Come more.
Finally, the theater rehearsal of the third-level troops invited to participate in the film festival is not unattractive, but they also have some measures to create employment. On average, the 70-person Solar Theater launches a new “creative collective” every three years: Every member of the Democracy and Economic Hope Company makes an appearance at least once. At the risk of turning the whole thing into a series of picturesque postcards, such as those that Pina Bosch liked to bring back from afar in his later years.
