ARCHIVES 2016 / The Damned

Invited by the Comédie-Française to direct its actors, Ivo van Hove chose to adapt The Damned for the stage. Using the screenplay rather than Visconti's film as a starting point, he tells the story of the Essenbecks as Nazism triumphs in Germany, in a show whose scenography borders on installation art. To protect their interests, the steel tycoons of the Essenbeck family see no other solution but to ally themselves with the new regime and murder the patriarch, old Baron Joachim, disgusted by the idea. Intrigue and machinations, betrayals and murders: the appointment of the new head of their steel empire will turn into a ritual in celebration of Evil, in which the corruption of the relationships between individuals echoes the cruelty and brutality of the political context. In this struggle for survival, against all odds, it is Martin – the incestuous and paedophiliac progeny of powerful Baroness Sophie – who will manage to eliminate all his opponents and become a zealous servant of the regime, ready to reign on the empire he inherited. He will however have to pay a high price, living a cold life irremediably devoid of love, goodness, and beauty.

Ivo van Hove
Artistic director since 2001 of the Toneelgroep in Amsterdam, one of Europe's most inventive theatre companies, Ivo van Hove has directed over a hundred shows, among which plays from the classic and contemporary repertoires, but also operas and book or film adaptations. In his personal repertoire, Shakespeare (whose Roman Tragedies he presented at the Festival d'Avignon in 2008), Molière, Goldoni, Schiller, Ibsen, O'Neill, Camus, Miller, Koltès, Duras, Müller, Jon Fosse, or Tony Kuschner stand alongside Verdi, Wagner, Berg, Janacek, or Mozart, but also Visconti, Pasolini, Bergman, or Cassavetes. In 2014, he presented The Fountainhead, based on Ayn Rand's novel, in the schoolyard of the Lycée Saint-Joseph. Ivo van Hove considers the space of the stage to be of primordial importance in his shows, and he always asks of actors that they combine the intelligence of words with that of emotions. His theatre has always been more subversive than strictly political, far from any moralising posturing, and has never shied away from asking dangerous questions in order to allow us to “experience our deepest fears and dearest hopes.”

Comédie-Française
Gone is the time when the actors of the Comédie-Française were almost all recruited among graduates of the French National Academy of Dramatic Arts in Paris, or of the former Ecole de la rue Blanche, now known as ENSATT. The 39 sociétaires and 20 pensionnaires of the company now come from various backgrounds, sometimes even from abroad. Simul et singulis – together but unique – their careers evolve through their meetings with the various directors invited to work with them. Every one of those meetings is unique, shapes their acting style, and strengthens the personality of this troupe like no other in France.