Description
*The Disturbed Among the Lilacs*, the only play written by the Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik, is a striking parody of Beckett’s *Endgame*, an iconic play of the Theatre of the Absurd.
The ‘disturbed ones’ here are Sigismonde and Carol, Macho and Futérine: two pairs of characters trapped in a no man’s land that is as much a school playground as it is an abandoned theatre. Through their dialogues, Pizarnik conveys her anxieties about the passing of time, loneliness, creativity and the difficulties of being a woman and an artist. But above all, the poet is having fun!
The extremes that run through her writing — from the most unbridled burlesque to the most stripped-back poetry — offer a young theatre company a wonderful playground for creating a generous form of theatre, championing with equal intensity both the most intimate outpourings of speech and the crudest gags. The existential vertigo that permeates the play resonates deeply with the questions faced by a new generation, which in turn is confronted with the threat of destruction and the desire for emancipation.
The production is part of a movement to rediscover a major work of Latin American literature, thanks to the publication by Ypsilon.éditeur over the last ten years of Pizarnik’s complete works and her diaries, in new translations. Audiences at the Olmu Festival are therefore treated to a brand-new production: the first performance in French of this rare, exhilarating and electrifying work.
Cast
Text: by Alejandra Pizarnik
Translation: Étienne Dobenesque, Ypsilon.éditeur, 2024
Directed by: Milena Mc Closkey
Dramaturgical assistant and acting coach: Emilia Fullana Lavatelli
Cast: Kévin Blanchard, Santiago Montequín, Thomas Nolet and Fanny Poey-Lafrance
Set design: Maoh Guillaume
Costume design: Paloma Donnini
Sound design and sound engineering: Owen Moran