in the heart of Avignon 2018, meeting with the actors of the festival

Episode 1: The competition of the small companies

The off festival of Avignon is 4667 artists, 258 places and 1538 shows listed! In this imposing mbad, three actresses try to stand out. Myriam Grélard, comes here for the second time with "Gainsbourg Forever, mouth of love" at the Théâtre du Chapeau Rouge. She knows she is not going to make money during the festival, but hopes to attract programmers and get dates: "when you get to balance the budget, it's good," she says. Claudine Van Beneden makes the same observation. She was invited to the Hotel d'Europe to play "And suddenly in turmoil" in Villeneuve en Scène, another site of the festival. Mardjane Chemirani, must also face the competition, with "You will take back a little Brbadens?". She plays at the Entrepôt, which co-creates her creation by offering her the time slot and the structure, which limits the costs.

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Episode 2: The Group of Spectators Mirror

The "Miroir" group of the Avignon Festival are spectators who take a critical look at the pieces. At the Papal Palace, they are in the front row to see "Thyeste" by Thomas Jolly. The actor and director adapted this monstrous tragedy of Seneca in which Atrée, makes eat his children to his twin brother Thyeste. After such a representation, the spectators "Mirror" debate on what they saw.

At the Avignon Festival, we manipulate the symbols, we make historical references […] we must try to understand

Alain Maldonado, founding member of the group

The feelings of the fifty members are written in notebooks, kept at the house Jean Vilar d'Avignon, branch of the BNF. They are supports for the research or the future spectators.

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Episode 3: Women workers take to the stage

Brigitte Petit is one of the former workers of Samsonite who plays at the festival off Avignon. She discovers a new world, that of the show, far from her former job as a seamstress. She and six other women, comrades, tell how they wanted to save their factory. Festival-goers feel close to their battle "I loved the physical engagement of these women as an actress," commented a spectator. Militants, workers and actresses, they are an example for other employees: "it also allows to refuse the fatality" says Gerard Cazorla, president of the Scop of the former factory Fralib, which was threatened with closure near Marseille and who was saved.

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