Thesee
I wonder if the lion be to speak.
Demetrius
No wonder, my lord : one lion may, when many asses do.
ShakespeareAfter its Molière trilogy, the theater company
La Nuit surprise par le Jour/The Night surprised by the Day, returns to the Odéon, but this time to the Berthier workshop stage and with Yann-Joel Collin directing. And it is with this comedy, one of the most seductive of his repertory, that the young Shakespeare, leaving all realist conventions behind, seems to suddenly discover the theatrical powers of experimental language. In fact, to be blunt, he seems to be having quite a lot of fun doing so. The « pretext for A Midsummer Night's Dream », remarks Yann-Joel Collin, « is a marriage that turns into a fairytale and finally returns where it began, as theater. » For The Night Surprised by the Day, the dream itself becomes a « pretext », an occasion: for turning theater into a festive event, following in Shakespeare's footsteps. According to certain Shakespeare scholars, the play was in fact written in order to be performed during the celebrations for a grand aristocratic marriage. But in Midsummer Night, Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding leads to something more along the lines of entertainment...yes, but what kind ? The kind of entertainment that a theater of artisans and craftsmen propose, those who dream of being part of the celebrations and decide to rehearse a tragedy in honor of their lord and master ? The kind of entertainment that is unknowingly offered by a ballet of love birds, the quadrille whose passions, thwarted and hindered as they are found out, are continually being reconstructed and then undone? That of a supernatural representation, where a Queen fairy wishes to defy a man with an ass's head ? In the end, the artisans will be able to perform their play...and for Yann-Joel Collin and his companions, their highly improbable troupe reveals, through its naive art form, the very necessity of theater itself. Because for a number of years now, The Night surprised by the Day, works, if not exactly in the same fashion as these artisans of theater, at least in the same spirit. Like them, everything is grist to their mill, whatever and however trivial it may be. Like them, what drives them most of all in this project, is the desire to share a moment of joy by drawing the audience into their wake. And so here in the Berthier theater, rather than a stage set, or even a stage, there will be a dance floor, a podium, spaces where one can dance, as though the entire theater had been turned into a huge party space. In this day and age, when a day doesn't go by without some special event (or one that is advertised as such), claiming to be « The night of... » (you fill in the blank), this particular theatrical party/celebration can more than justify a title such as "The Night of...!" A Night's Dream, or perhaps even, "A Midsummer Night's Dream
surprised by the day..."
« In the vast space of the Ateliers Berthier de l'Odéon », concludes Yann-Joel Collin, « Shakespeare's play is the opportunity for us to invite our audience to a celebration, and to invite everyone to participate. »
