ARCHIVES 2000 / Cycle de lectures

Besides the nine THEOREM guest projects, the Festival wanted to make a space for playwrights from eastern European countries and to make it accessible to the public. Thus, there will be eight play readings in French translation hosted by the Maison Antoine-Vitez. Writing and contemporary writing for the stage in eastern Europe illustrates the vitality and diversity that correspond to the formidable changes - and their tragic avatars - that this region has undergone where countries are deeply rooted in European history and culture. Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Serbia, are the countries that have been selected by the Maison Antoine-Vitez and the Avignon Festival for this first edition of a programme of readings spread over two years. The programme has inspired numerous writers, some of whom are not yet thirty years old. The plays are dense and a most varied selection of areas are explored: theatre of the absurd, epic theatre, everyday theatre, poetic theatre, and of course comedy, biting humour that is at the same time bitter and rejoicing. Nearly all the texts included in these readings are unpublished works, and they are all characterised by their radical nature, their points of view, the determination of their authors wholly to seize the reality that feeds their writing. This reality bears their hopes, their anger, their disillusion, the difficulties of living in exile as well sometimes, but most of all their huge desire to fight against war, intolerance, corruption, blind nationalism, false promises and permanent danger of seeing their culture sacrificed on the altar of globalisation.