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The Avignon Festival 2006 - A Personal Encounter (Part II)The Artistic Associate and the Programming (4)Jacqueline Fletcher visits the 60th Avignon FestivalDateline: 26th July, 2006Théâtre Équestre Zingaro/Bartabas -- Battuta Bartabas is popular in France; so much so that the colour supplement of Le Monde has dedicated a cover article to his appearance with his horses at the Avignon Festival. Having trained as a circus artist, twenty years ago he invented a new form, le théâtre équestre. His company has travelled the world and his most celebrated spectacles are available on DVD. According to the programme notes, this phenomenon would seem to bear no relationship to that popular 19th century form of light entertainment the Hippodrome. Bartabas invests his work with a more profound aesthetic, basing productions on traditional Korean musique (Eclipse, 1997), Stravinski and Pierre Boulez (Triptyk, 2000) or the chants of Tibetan monks (Loungta, Horse of the Wind, 2003). This particular production, performed in a big top at the race track outside Avignon (Chapiteau Domaine de Roberty), seems to be more in the traditional gypsy style. It is dedicated to the nomadic life-style, the spirit of freedom, exhibiting the prowess of a team of riders and the magnificence of 45 horses. It returns to the troupe's origins using two groups of Romanian musicians playing traditional gypsy music, brass, strings, accordions and a lot of oomph. The aesthetic component is supplied by a column of streaming water, cascading with force down from the centre of the roof into the centre of the inner ring and lit by variously coloured lights. Intermittently, a woman in a sumptuous bridal gown, mounted on a white steed, her 10 metre-long train held aloft by white balloons, canters around the ring. From the advance publicity, particularly photographs of previous productions, and the article in Le Monde, I'd expected something more theatrical, spectacular, and in particular some special communication between man and these magnificent beasts. As it turned out, the horses were confined to galloping in circles round and round a ring, while young male acrobats showed-off their skills with a certain amount of machismo. They were good, no doubt about it, but the stunts were repetitive; more and more jumps on and off galloping horses, more hats being picked up from the floor, more men standing on the backs of one horse and jumping, more men riding two horses as once, and occasionally, for the sake of a story-line, a young woman attempting to escape a marriage arranged for her by an irate father, some swapping of horses, some chasing, some carts going round the ring at full speed, and eventually, it seems, the woman runs away and mates with the performing bear (a man in a bear suit) who provides the comic relief. I know that this is dangerous work and requires years of training and skill, but then so does trapeze and high-wire work. I dislike seeing animals used so that men can show off how clever they are. I found the galloping of the horses in quite tight circles distasteful. There was just one moment of beauty when the horses, about twenty coffee-coloured, beautiful beasts with white manes and tails, congregated together in the middle of the ring while one of them stood underneath the jet of water cascading down in bright white light. It was a fine image, but static. The concept of crossing borders, of the liberty of the exile was evident here. But perhaps, there was an element of political correctness in the choice of this piece as well. At present immigration is a hot issue in France. The riots of second and third-generation immigrants from Northern Africa in the banlieux last November and the reaction on the part of minister of the interior Nicholas Sarkozy were only the beginning. At the moment, the government is hot on the trail of illegal immigrants and the press is full of stories concerning the plight of people who have lived and worked here as migrant workers for years, have parents who have lived and worked here and children of their own in schools here, yet lack the appropriate documents (they are referred to as the sans papiers). References to the attitudes of authorities towards gypsies was introduced to the show by two performers dressed as Eastern European type policemen or immigration officials who appeared in the ring blocking the way and obliging the horses and riders to exit. It was a recurrent motif and a reminder of the realities of 21st century migration. >> Next page
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