Intense festivities at La Bâtie Festival

Le Regard Libre N° 53 - Ivan Garcia

From August 29 to September 15, the forty-third edition of Geneva's La Bâtie festival will take place. It's an opportunity for the event to «mark the occasion» and showcase some of the biggest names on the scene, as well as offering a diverse program of dance, theater and music.

It's a hot June morning on the seventh floor of Geneva's Théâtre Saint-Gervais. Gathered in the same black box, the various journalists and critics from French-speaking Switzerland are eagerly awaiting the unveiling of the program for the new season of Geneva's performing arts festival. In the stands, among our dear professional colleagues from La Tribune de Genève, from Time and many others, including the co-director of La Comédie de Genève, Denis Maillefer.

Accompanied by his communications managers, festival director Claude Ratzé makes his entrance and, after a brief welcome, launches into the presentation of the program. For his second edition as director, he announced no less than fifty-two shows and concerts, i.e. around one hundred and sixty-eight performances, which augurs an extremely rich and intense festival. To illustrate this, the presentation team has chosen to show a large number of videos, notably of teasers and trailers, This is an introduction to the program with more images and fewer words, as the organizers have decided to show rather than tell. With so many shows to choose from, and so many surprises in store, your editor presents the main features of this forty-third edition of the La Bâtie festival.

The return of long shows

The surprise of this program is that long-length shows are making a comeback. Indeed, for some years now, while the dramatic trend has been to shorten the duration of performances, the La Bâtie festival has been offering, among other things, a number of long shows, including a theatrical performance lasting.... nine hours! On this subject, theatre-maker Robert Cantarella, accompanied by young actor Romain Daroles, presents I myself was disappointed; performance based on the radio interviews between critic Paul Léautaud and ORTF host Robert Mallet. Cantarella and Daroles will embody these two key figures, bringing their fiery verbiage to the stage as they tackle the various social issues debated on the program in the past. It's a very long show, but one that gives the audience a great deal of freedom, and represents a major challenge for the two protagonists.

One of the most eagerly awaited shows in the program is the recreation of the famous opera by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson, Einstein on the Beach. A cult opera of the seventies, its dramaturgy is not based on Einstein's trajectory, but on subtle non-linear references to him, including the theory of relativity. At once a story of time and space, time and machines, robots and humans, this opera - one of Philip Glass's longest - will last between four and five hours, and will be directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, the grand organizer of the Fête des Vignerons 2019.

On the shores of Lake Machilly in neighbouring France, La Bâtie offers spectators a veritable trilogy. On September 5 and 6, a Flemish company, Compagnie Marius, will perform Marcel Pagnol's trilogy: Marius, Fanny and César. The three plays, interspersed with an intermission, will run for more than three hours in a row for a night of «avé l'accent du plat pays». As a reminder, this family saga begins with the story of Marius, a young sailor from Marseilles who hesitates between marrying Fanny - and thus leading a peaceful life - or setting sail in search of adventure. Let's face it, Marcel Pagnol remains an author we don't often see on stage in French-speaking Switzerland. This bucolic excursion is the perfect opportunity to immerse ourselves in his fables with their Provencal accents.

Big names in theater

For this latest edition, the organizing committee has invited some of the biggest names on the contemporary scene to breathe epic life into the festivities. Among them, the guest who is already causing a stir even before the ticket office opens, is Franco-Lebanese director and playwright Wajdi Mouawad. From August 29 to 31, the festival welcomes his latest creation All birds which brings to the stage the thorny issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the complex love story between Eitan, a young scientist of Israeli origin, and Wahida, an Arab historian. A show lasting over four hours, with high expectations, All birds opens this new edition of the festival by setting the bar very high in the Geneva sky.

Visiting Geneva after his memorable performances at the Festival d'Avignon, director Julien Gosselin, known for his adaptations of novels by American writer Don DeLillo, offers a show adapted from the same author's short story entitled The hammer and sickle. It brings to the stage the story of a formertrader imprisoned and condemned to contemplate the lives of others, as well as his own former life, through the bars of his cell. Julien Gosselin's adaptation of this major reflection on capitalism by an American playwright with an incisive style promises a politically engaged play that, in the vein of its run at Avignon, questions our relationship with money, as well as our dreams of relationships and hope.

Another distinguished guest, this time from South Korea, is performer Jaha Koo, who will perform his piece Cuckoo. Cuckoo is the brand name of a rice cooker, a very useful tool in Asian countries and, what's more, in South Korea. With its rice cooker endowed with words, Jaha Koo traces the history of a country in crisis between food, politics and biographical events. The second part of his trilogy entitled’Hamartia Trilogy, Cuckoo focuses on those events of the past - in this case, the Korean economic crisis of the 1990s - that still have a fundamental impact on the lives of Koreans today. A show not to be missed.

An ode to dance

In addition to theater, the Geneva festival also features dance. From August 30 to 31, Zimbabwean dancer Nora Chipaumire, straight from New York, comes to Geneva with her triptych #PUNK 100% POP *N!GGA. A chance to meet three idols (Patti Smith, Grace Jones and Rit Nzele) who left their mark on the performer during her youth in Zimbabwe. After Patti Smith's punk heyday in #PUNK, 100% POP and *N!GGA the spectator to the rhythm of chimurenga - a popular Zimbabwean music - and rumba Congolese. A great moment of multiple dances to music from all horizons that raises many expectations.

In another register, the Italian-Croatian duo of Giuseppe Chico and Barbara Matijević perform on the set with Forecasting. Combining laptop, video and dance, the performance showcases the different ways in which new technologies can be used to present ourselves. On the other side of the lake, in Divonne-les-Bains, Belgian company Peeping Tom presents Kind; the last part of their trilogy on the family, after the father and the mother, here is a dance piece dedicated to the child. Wonderful landscapes and cartoonish protagonists underline a performance imbued with poetry and candor.

In a more playful vein, the Danish company hello!earth is putting on a special show entitled Life in the universe - A gathering for animals, people and minerals. A «counter-current» performance, this show invites spectators to dress up as blades of grass and take a stroll through nature, to spend a convivial and amusing moment together. The show's premise is based on the idea of creating a collective order in contact with nature; each little team of blades of grass will have to try to find solutions to create a good society.

Party hard

While the theater and dance stages offer audiences a luxurious program, the festival's music scene is not to be outdone. With its myriad of concerts and bands, the musical program promises decibel fans a memorable time. Among others, the star of the house Korea's Park Hye Jin will be on hand for one evening to set the mood for the festival with a particularly explosive and effective cocktail of sounds.

On the evening of Saturday, September 7, the musicians of Vaudou Game will be gracing the Geneva stage with their riffs and Afro-funk rhythms; Togolese scales, guitars and voodoo chants, a strange combination that promises to hypnotize listeners and get them on the dance floor in no time. In contrast, on Saturday September 14, the festival changes style with a rap evening featuring Belgian rapper of Moroccan origin Hamza, and Geneva rapper Chien Bleu. Two hotheads whose lyrical flights of fancy and punchlines promise to set the stage on fire for a memorable evening. Let's face it, for late-night bamboozlers, La Bâtie Festival's «prog’ is as follows party hard!

In addition to these artistic delights, the festival is also planning the first edition of a «gourmet» market - with various stalls - where local artisans and producers will be selling their foodstuffs to introduce audiences to other tastes, after their avalanche of aesthetic emotions. The latest edition of Geneva's performing arts festival is sure to be a must-see for all those who enjoy culture and entertainment. In Geneva, intense festivities are in the offing, and we're looking forward to them.

Write to the author: ivan.garcia@leregardlibre.com

Header image: © Olympe Tits, Peeping Tom