This autumn UK audiences will have the first opportunity to witness the English language premiere of Jean René Lemoine's reimagining of the classic story of passion and revenge Medea. Previewing at the Marlborough Pub & Theatre in Brighton on the 28th September, the performance will premiere at The Place London presented as part of And What? Queer. Arts. Festival before going on tour to Cambridge Junction, Norwich Arts Centre, Pavilion Dance Bournemouth, Hull Truck Theatre, Unity Theatre Liverpool as part of Homotopia Festival, Lancaster Arts Centre at University of Lancaster, and Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
This startling reimagining sees Medea cast as the ultimate outsider, a stranger in a foreign land, a being filled with rage. Her monologue is half witness-statement, half incantation, taking us from ancient Greece to modern Europe and back again in a provocative, blood-soaked collage of performance, opera, and sexual confession. Lemoine’s version of Medea, already performed in France to great acclaim, reimagines this archetypal figure from classical drama as a genderless, stateless, and violently transgressive contemporary figure. The playwright, an artist of Afro-French origin born in Haiti, makes Medea a stranger in her own country, who seeks to flee from the asphyxiation of family bonds through carnal union with her brother and then in the physical bedazzlement of her encounter with Jason, the ravisher and the violator. The work speaks about marginalisation, isolation, and exile.
The performer, dancer and vocalist, François Testory fuses his extraordinary physicality, and androgynous and unique stage presence with a radical mixing of classical and contemporary vocal technique to bring the murderous figure of Medea to life in this evocative lament featuring live music by Phil Von. Testory has performed with some of Europe’s most innovative companies, including Lindsay Kemp, DV8, Rambert Dance Company, Punch Drunk, and Gecko.
Following a hugely successful run at The Arcola with The Plague, Medea is the new work from one of the UK’s most celebrated directors and authors, Neil Bartlett. The piece is directed and translated by Bartlett who has drawn on his experience of both heightened classical drama at the largest scale and of the most intimate contemporary queer solo performance genre to create a powerful theatrical experience. Neil Bartlett was formerly Artistic Director the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith; his other recent work includes Stella (LIFT, Brighton Festival, Holland Festival 2016) and the Britten Canticles (Aldeburgh, Brighton, Royal Opera House, 2015).
The production will tour in smaller-scale venues across the UK in order to ensure the work is experienced by young diverse audiences in a bid to present highly charged theatre on an accessible platform. Through the performance itself and an accompanying programme of audience engagement and participation, audiences will be encouraged to explore the issues with which the work deals.
Performance by François Testory
Translation and direction by Neil Bartlett
Corsetier, Mr Pearl
Sound design and performance by Phillipe Fontez
Lighting design by Chahine Yavroyan
Stage, company and technical management by Jules Millard
Production photography by Manuel Vason
Produced by Nelson Fernandez and Lia Prentaki for NFA International Arts & Culture
2017 Tour Dates
Marlborough Pub & Theatre Brighton – 28-29 September
The Place London presented as part of And What? Queer. Arts. Festival – 5-6-7 October
Cambridge Junction – 11 October
Norwich Arts Centre – 18 October
Pavilion Dance Bournemouth – 20 October
Hull Truck Theatre Hull – 24-25 October
Unity Theatre, Homotopia Festival, Liverpool – 1 November
Lancaster Arts, University of Lancaster – 2 November
Birmingham Repertory Theatre – 17-18 November
Cast and Creatives
Jean-René Lemoine is a Haitian-French playwright, theatre director and actor born in Haiti in 1959 and based in Paris since 1989. His artistic training began at the Conservatoire of Dramatic Art in Paris and then at the Mudra school of Maurice Béjart in Brussels and continued at the Institute of Theatrical Studies at Censier in Paris. After a career as an actor and performer with companies such as Lindsay Kemp’s, he worked as an assistant at the Union des Théâtres de l'Europe, based at the Odéon - Théâtre de l'Europe. He also collaborated on a regular basis with the Académie Expérimentale des Théâtres. His Médée, poème enragé (Medea, an Enraged Poem) was first staged in March 2014 at MC93 and then at the Théâtre National de Strasbourg in late 2016. Jean-René Lemoine has dedicated himself principally to writing since 1985; his numerous published works include Compte-rendu d'un vertige (novel) as well as numerous texts for theatre: Iphigénie, Portrait d'un couple, Chimères, L'Ode à Scarlett O'Hara, Ecchymose, Face a la Mere, Atlantis, L'Odeur du noir, Erzuli Dahomey, Le Voyage vers Grand-Rivière, and Comédie Française
François Testory's most recent creation Empire was staged at The Place. He collaborated with Lindsay Kemp in many memorable performances including Flowers, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Big Parade. As a performer with other of Europe’s most innovative companies, his most recent work has been with DV8, Punch Drunk, Rambert Dance Company, and Gecko. As a vocalist, his most recent work has been with Graindelavoix, an early music collective from Antwerp, experimenting between the fields of music, performance, and creation. He also collaborated extensively as a vocalist with cult electro-bands Laniakia and Coil.
Neil Bartlett's most recent work as author and director includes a highly successful run of his version of Camus’ The Plague at The Arcola in spring 2017, Stella (LIFT, Brighton Festival, Holland Festival 2016); in music-theatre, his most recent work was his staging of the Britten Canticles for Ian Bostridge and Iestyn Davies (Aldeburgh, Brighton, ROH, 2015). As a performer, his most recent work was a marathon six-hour reading of the Oscar Wild’s De Profundis for Artangel at Reading Gaol. His numerous translations of contemporary and classical French drama include Stephane Olry's Here Be Lions (Theatre of Europe), and Racine's Bérénice for the National Theatre.
Phil Von (Philippe Fontez) is a singer, composer and electronic musician as well as flamenco dancer. Phil Von is the co-leader of the performance group Von Magnet (1985/2017) which he initiated in London and which performed at the ICA, LIFT Festival, Almeida Theatre, and the National Review of Live Arts in Glasgow. Von Magnet invented their own “Electro-Flamenco” style which unfolded through the years, both on record (12 albums released on various labels) and on stage (different live performances and tours around Europe in festivals, theatres, concert halls and museums).
Under his own name, Phil Von has composed and performed with major ballet and dance companies in Germany (Berlin, Kiel, Dessau, Stuttgart), written various soundtracks for visual arts, contemporary dance, and theatre plays as well as directed performance pieces for young companies in France, Portugal, Morocco, and Turkey. He has been lead composer and performer for the last twelve years with physical and street theatre companies such as Materia Prima, Do Theatre, Underclouds, Entre Terre et Ciel, U-Structure Nouvelle.
In contemporary music, he has composed a piece for double string quartet + electronics for Art Zoyd and the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles in Brussels, and was commissioned to write Groundscape by the G.R.M (Group of Musical Research) in Paris and Montpellier, which he co-wrote with Mimetic.
Mr. Pearl, a world-renowned corsetier, has a background in stage design, costume and fashion. He designed costumes and sets for Matthew Hawkins, including Fresh Dances for the Late Tchaikovsky (1993 - Dance Umbrella/Hackney Empire), Dancing Attendance on the Cultural Chasm (1995 - Rambert Dance Company), Angels and Exiles (2000 - Royal Opera House/Clore Studio Theatre) and Silent Rhythms (2004 - Jerwood Choreography Prize). Mr Pearl realised designs by Leigh Bowery for Michael Clark's Because We Must (Sadler’s Wells 1988) and I am Curious Orange (Holland Festival 1989) as well as Bowery's own costume wardrobe (1988 - 1993). He has also realised numerous corsets and gowns for Parisian Haute Couture with designers Thierry Mugler, Christian Lacroix, Jean-Paul Gaultier and others and created foundation and stagewear for burlesque star Dita von Teese and performance artist Rose English. His personal archive (catalogued by students of Central St Martins UAL) is held at London's Somerset House. Examples of his stage and fashion work are in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and New York's Metropolitan Museum.
