LE LIVRE D'OR DE JAN (Jan’s Visitors’ Book)
(FROM MARCH, 9 TO APRIL, 30 2009)
In a world where political sphere and art rub shoulders, the project by Hubert Colas at CENTQUATRE allows the audience to hear a multiplicity of points of view; the views of the friends of a dead artist, peripheral words that draw a character, tell some bits of his personality, sketch out his temper.
Throughout these narratives, these meetings with someone who is not there, "Le Livre d’or de Jan" sets up a manual of instants, of intuitions… It shows us how we can try to get always closer to who we are, our lives and the lives of other people. "Le Livre d'or de Jan" is the life that we are living. The relationship to the everyday life is woven into the text: wanderings in the city, inspirations, interviews, introspections, experiences, love encounters, paternity, speech and speechlessness, society life, secrets… A mise en scène of alternatives to reality and to the daily routine is at stake in CENTQUATRE.
"Le Livre d’or de Jan" will be performed from June the 26th to the 28th during the Festival delle Colline Torinesi (Italy) before being put on again in the Avignon festival.
HUBERT COLAS
Hubert Colas is a writer, a director and a theatre designer. He created Diphtong Cie in 1988 and from his first play "Temporairement épuisé" he stood out as an essential writer and actor director for his generation. Writing is his fuel and air.
Since 1988, echoing his work as a writer, Hubert Colas has explored the writings of Witold Gombrowicz, Christine Angot, Sarah Kane, Martin Crimp and Rainald Goetz. In March 2005 he translated and directed "Hamlet" at the National Theatre in Marseille, La Criée, which was presented afterwards at the 59th Avignon Festival.
Hubert Colas created Montévidéo in January 2001 in Marseille, a creative centre dedicated to contemporary writing. In 2002 he founded ActOral, an international festival of art and contemporary writing that selects writers coming from several artistic backgrounds. In 2007 and 2008 he became an associated artist at the National Theatre of La Colline where he presented his last creation as a writer in March 2008 : "Sans faim & sans faim" and "Face to the Wall" by Martin Crimp in November.
With his ever evolving approach to the texts, his rigour and his inventiveness, Hubert Colas celebrates theatrical writing in all its diversity. But what he is most interested in is the representation. His research and rehearsals, as intense as they may be, are focused on this exchange yet to come: the encounter with the audience. His simple and forward approach cannot hide a real understanding and a generosity that he names "sentiment of life". In fact, on the page as well as on stage, it is the same call to life that animates his characters. Colas’ work is based on the urge to find desire and hunger again.
