This creator of images of an inspired beauty, also renowned for his direction of actors and the dramaturgical quality of his intentions, is taking on this play that has a special status in the Shakespearian repertoire. This “weaving of materials of incredible richness” that has always fascinated him, appeals above all to the imagination, drawing on a constant interplay of the real and the unreal.
In this text on power –political power but also power of thought– every moment and every word overturns our certainties. It opens on the tempest caused by Prospero, and with it, the shipwreck of his brother who has usurped his kingdom. The latter is marooned with his companions of misfortune on the island where the exile has lived for twelve years with his daughter Miranda and two spirits obliged to serve him, but who also seek their freedom: Ariel and Caliban. The storm that rages, especially in Prospero’s soul, will constantly erupt throughout the five acts, comments Robert Carsen. For the duration of the performance, the Salle Richelieu will transform itself into this island, a magical lair, a mental and psychological space he orchestrates while assuring us that “we are such stuff as dreams are made on.”

Avec le mécénat exclusif de Grant Thornton.

Retrouvez le dossier pédagogique Pièce (dé)montée établi par Réseau Canopé

Some of Shakespeare’s plays carry us beyond reality: whether we meet a fairy or a spectre, or whether a plot is based on a prediction or an act of magic, the spectator is often drawn into the realm of the supernatural – a place of evil or wonder – that permeated both the daily life and the imagination of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. Since 1769 (Ducis’ adaptation of Hamlet), numerous directors have “summoned” him to the stage of the Comédie-Française: Emile Perrin, Albert Carré, Charles Granval, Julien Bertheau, Jacques Fabbri, Terry Hands, Jean-Pierre Vincent, Jorge Lavelli, Georges Lavaudant, Daniel Mesguich, Andrès Lima, Dan Jemmett and Muriel Mayette-Holtz.

Macbeth is among the playwright’s darkest plays. The frightening protagonists seen at the rising of the curtain, the three witches, soon disappear mysteriously before Macbeth and Banquo, the latter becoming a ghost in the third act. However, the most illustrious and spectacular ghost haunting the history of theatre remains the one who appears to Hamlet as the spirit of his late father. Terrifying apparitions also haunt the king’s nights in_Richard III_ and the curses of Queen Margaret all, inexorably, come to pass. Far from these evil spells, the most fanciful enchantment illuminates A Midsummer Night’s Dream, populating the forest with elves, fairies and fantastic creatures, composing a world in its own right. Puck has the power to make the fog emerge or to influence the feelings of love, like Ariel in The Tempest.

The power that Prospero and the occult sciences exert over the natural elements determine the unfolding of events in The Tempest. The unleashing of the sea, the use of invisibility to warn against conspiracies, metamorphosis and the organisation of phantasmagoria are triggered by white magic to elevate man to harmony and wisdom. While the previous staging of the play (1998) opened up the stage into an immense wooden bookshelf, the more virtual one proposed by Robert Carsen will have the effect of immersing it.

Staging: Robert Carsen
Scenography: Radu Boruzescu
Costumes: Petra Reinhardt
Lights: Robert Carsen et Peter Van Praet
Video: Will Duke
Sounds: Léonard Françon
Dramaturgy: Ian Burton
Staging collaboration: Christophe Gayral
Scenography assistant: Philippine Ordinaire

Avec la participation d’Elsa Lepoivre dans le film.