The public watching yesterday's show. They were in stitches. I strongly recommend you click on the image to enlarge it, you'll see the details of all these smiling faces - sure to bring a smile on yours.
The Avignon theatre festival is over but street performances aimed at visiting tourists continue around Popes palace square. I enjoyed watching this guy working on his clay make up in a corner of the square.
After a short while (hardly 45 seconds) he grew really annoyed with my photos and pulled a face at me. Sorry for being a nuisance sir, and thanks to you, you made my day ! (I obviously wouldn't have been so insistent with anyone else but I believe that for a street performer, being photographed is part of the job, don't you ?).
Street show: three girls dressed in red, black and white combine dance and mime in a fun-filled show based on improvisation where they alternatively interact or go on their own exploratory stunts. Their free expression explores a large variety of emotions and sensations : friendship and divisions, joy, surprise or sadness, sense of play, freedom... I recognised in their work some elements I explored myself in a couple of workshops I enroled in during my holidays : improvisation in dance and theatre. I enjoyed that tremendously.
This very young girl worked for a non-permanent tattoo parlor and was copying a pattern for a client when I spotted the rat sleeping under her hair. She gave me permission to take a picture. The rat's name is Fleur, she's had him for four months and he spends all day on her shoulder.
With so much going on during the Festival, it's hard to be noticed sometimes. A white statue stood proudly at the bottom of the stairs leading to the Popes' Palace entrance but it was a quiet spot. Most of the pedestrian traffic was further down where jugglers, dancers and other human statues were already competing for attention. This one hardly got noticed and it's a defeated Roman emperor that I saw a little while later.
Japanese medieval song and dance: the song was a repetitive whine with very nasal sounds, amazing to listen to even if not particularly pleasant to my untrained ear. The Avignon Festival attracts street performers from all over the world and I have seen dancers from Brazil, tango guitar players from Argentina, jugglers from Spain, a potter from Tunisia... in fact there's so much happening in the street that some of the visitors to the Avignon Festival don't go and see a play at all, they're just happy to stroll around town and enjoy the street performances.
Walking through the streets of Avignon in July is such an amazing experience: posters, posters, posters everywhere. On every wall and every lamp post, tied to every waterspout, fence, railing or window bar... Over a thousand shows and plays are on during the Festival so competition is fierce! Although this wild posting can be perceived as visual pollution, it is part and parcel of the incredible spirit of creativity that takes over the city for a month.
Teaser on place du palais: Commedia dell'arte brought to you by second year students of the International Academy of Live Arts, directed by Carlo Boso. The young actors are incredibly energetic and the show mixes singing, dancing, mime, music, sword fights and fun references to today's life and news. Three plays directed by Carlo Boso are shown every day during the Festival d'Avignon: Il Falso Magnifico at 10:30 am, Scaramuccia at 6:30 pm and Twelfth Night at 6:45 pm. Carlo Boso is one of the finest masters of Commedia dell'arte in the world. On the 15th of July, his company had a free show on the place du palais showing excerpts of the three plays and more. He set this up with the view that the public should always be at the center of the Festival d'Avignon, as willed by its founding director Jean Vilar.
Yesterday afternoon I happened to be walking past at the right time so I was invited to the premiere of an exceptional show: it is held under a beach umbrella and takes a maximum of eight people! It's called the PPCA - le Plus Petit Chapiteau d'Amiens, Amiens' Smallest Big Top (Amiens is a town in the north of France). The public sits in a circle on tiny stools under the umbrella. There is no room for the actors to stand in the middle so they stay outside and just slip their heads through gaps in the curtains to say their lines. The show lasts all of ten minutes (OK, maybe fifteen) and was played by three young girls. They said four little pieces, among which a story by Claude Ponti (French author of humorous children's books) and a poem by Jacques Prévert called "you must be polite with the moon" (in French and in full here). Thanks to Camille, Caroline and Marie for their wonderful performance. If you want to find them in Avignon, you'll need a bit of luck because their big top moves all the time. Just a few minutes after the show, the umbrella and stools had been folded away and the PPCA was ready to move on to a new location. Contact the PPCA : 03 22 93 38 47.
Meet Lino, the clown in black who performs every afternoon on Palace square (place du Palais). Here he is during his show (below) and taking a rest (above). His real name is Simon but shhhhh, I never told you that.
Festival d'Avignon 2008on 2008, spectacle de rue
Night-time entertainment on Place de l'Horloge. The light was very dim but apparently enough for the artist to work. I didn't want to use the flash, it would have disturbed him. The sketch was excellent, it really looked like the model. Two or three artists were there, offering to make your portrait. Have you been to Place du Tertre in Montmartre in Paris where there are dozens of them? Have you ever had your portrait done ?
The living statues you often see in touristy places around the world use various techniques. One I saw further down on place de l'Horloge changed positions every time he was given a coin - a great incentive to give! His creative poses delighted the public. This one, also very successful, chose the absolutely no move option. His all-white outfit was a perfect match for the gorgeous background of the Pope's Palace. A note at his feet said he could keep the same pose for up to an hour. Eyes peacefully closed, where does his mind take him for such a long time? Is he accutely aware of the crowds around him, listening to every voice and move, or detached in semi-meditation?
