Avignon: breathtaking "The Black Monk" by Kirill Serebrennikov at the Court of Honor of the Popes' Palace

Kirill Serebrennikov and his troupe during the salute after the premiere of "Black Monk" in the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes at the 2022 Avignon Festival. © Siegfried Forster / RFI

Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow

7 mins

At the opening of the Avignon Festival on Thursday July 7, the exiled Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov made the madness of freedom reign for almost three hours in the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes.

The show will be broadcast on Saturday July 9 at 10:40 p.m. free live on Arte.

Advertising

Read more

Under the starry sky of the City of the Popes, the two thousand spectators, including the new French Minister of Culture, were able to experience a real spectacle of the storm.

The wind blew hard in the Cour d'honneur, and the artistic soul cried out its truth.

At the premiere of its creation in the Palace of the Popes, the forces of nature were with Kirill Serebrennikov.

Gusts of wind changed the staging a little and caused elements of the decor to fly up to the bleachers, thus further amplifying the impact of the scene on the spectators.

The Russian director signed a grandiose and breathtaking opening show, performed by an exceptional troupe, made up of actors, dancers, musicians and singers, some of whom excel in everything at the same time.

A very musical interpretation in all dimensions: mental spaces and the Court, leaps of time and rhythm of repetitions, images of physical and projected bodies, sonority of the story and of dreams...

"The Black Monk", by Kirill Serebrennikov, in the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes, Festival d'Avignon 2022. © Christophe Raynaud de Lage / Festival d'Avignon

"Freiheit statt Angst!"

(“Freedom instead of being afraid!”)

The Black Monk

, a little-known short story by Chekhov, tells the story of a writer determined to fight for freedom:

(

).

For this, he must overcome the mediocrity of the society around him.

But society feels attacked by his free and unbridled spirit and sends him to the psychiatric hospital to be cured of his hallucinations of a black monk...

Any similarities with the personal fate of

, long under house arrest by the Putin regime and exiled to Germany since January, are of course not entirely invented, even if Chekhov's short story dates from 1894 and the man of theater, considered the figurehead of Russian anti-Putin and anti-war artists in Ukraine, had designed this theater-opera long before its liberation.

"The Black Monk", by Kirill Serebrennikov, in the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes, Festival d'Avignon 2022. © Christophe Raynaud de Lage / Festival d'Avignon

The exuberance and fragility of the Cour d'honneur

Kirill Serebrennikov's staging embraces the Cour d'honneur, in its exuberance – with mad and furious laughter – but also in its fragility oscillating between pride and impotence.

The perfect diction and the telluric presence of the actors, the divine and disturbing songs of the men's choir, and the firm bodies and open steps of the dancers come together perfectly in fusion and in confrontation with this architecture of a spiritual power which once reigned over faith and submission.

Because the wall of the Court, high and powerful, is as incredible as it is ruthless.

The power of this theater mecca is such that it transcends any play and any director.

To confront this papal vestige is to try one's chance to be taken to unsuspected artistic heights, but it is also to take the risk of being crushed by the gigantic scale.

The spectator, transformed into an active witness, attends a showdown between the artistic spirit and the mystical power of the place.

“ 

 " 

 »

The same story in four different languages

The Russian artist bravely won his bet by starting Chekhov's short story on stage with the exclamation “ 

 », sent by Andreï, a poet and intellectual in lack of inspiration.

He then returns to the countryside, to his friend Péssôtski who once educated him.

But the latter is a ferocious gardener, in a permanent quest for “normality”, preferring mediocrity and submission to the insecurity of freedom.

For this he wants to marry his daughter Tanja with Andreï, considered by him as a genius with a promising future.

Three small houses, built with plastic slats and tarpaulins occupy the giant plateau of the Cour d'honneur.

The arrangement of these small nurseries on stage will change in each of the four acts of the play and will determine the course of the story which will be told four times from a different point of view, each time in a different language: German gives way to Italian before English and Russian took over.

A very demanding Tower of Babel for the French public whose language only exists through translations projected on the big wall and the screens placed alongside the stage.

A bet all the more risky for the opening at the Palais de Papes since the world premiere of the play took place last January in Germany, at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg.

At an international level,

the challenge of the staging was therefore limited to the confrontation with the mythical place of the Cour d'honneur.

That said, Serebrennikov made it a masterpiece with an unrivaled sense for the plasticity of thought power.

Spectators in the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes before the premiere of "Black Monk", directed by Kirill Serebrennikov at the Festival d'Avignon 2022. © Siegfried Forster / RFI

beyond comprehension

With their gazes and words often directed directly at the public, the performers of Le

appeal to the spectators in a striking way in relation to this fight between genius and mediocrity, madness and the norm, the truth of the soul and the voracity of a limited society that puts comfort above freedom.

Even the key words “epidemic” and “war” appear at a certain moment on the giant wall of the Court, ultimate proof of the topicality of this story of Chekhov dating back more than a hundred years.

On stage, the inevitable decline is embodied by the bodies, the voices and the silences.

When the silhouettes of black monks in black robes appear on the stone wall of the Court, everything becomes twilight, even the air and the light.

And we find ourselves far beyond comprehension.

The movements of the dancers anchored in the earth, the songs rooted in the beyond, give birth to a New World.

It is a celestial garden, the

by Kirill Serebrennikov in homage to artistic madness and freedom.

“Stop War”

This epic, poetic and political evening ends with a blood-red “Stop War” banner projected on the wall, with long and sustained applause, nevertheless without the force and madness that reigned for two and a half hours on stage.

"The Black Monk", by Kirill Serebrennikov, in the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des Papes, Festival d'Avignon 2022. © Christophe Raynaud de Lage / Festival d'Avignon

►

, after Anton Chekhov, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, from July 7 to 15 at the Palais des Papes at the Avignon Festival.

► The show is broadcast on July 9 around 10:40 p.m. live on Arte, then available on arte.tv.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• Avignon 2022

• Theater

• Russia

• France

• Culture

• our selection

On the same subject

Opening of the Festival d'Avignon, creation, crises and the public

Guest Culture

The 76th edition of the Festival d'Avignon, last edition for Olivier Py

Focus

Support, criticize or be silent, Russian artists face a choice with serious consequences