Nice Cimiez Tragedy Festival / Racine's Andromaque: Ruins of love in the ruins of the arena

Nathalie Audin
Aug 2
4 min read

Tuesday, 2 July 2024

Published on the website : Resonances Lyriques Org

What if stories of impossible love were not only the result of irreconcilable differences between individuals, but also, or perhaps even more so, the consequence of the breakdown of a world incapable of generating healthy, beautiful and obvious relationships because it has itself been destroyed, becoming ugly, sterile and lost? In an international context ravaged by bullets and bombs, by widespread crisis (economic, social, cultural...), Stéphane Braunschweig highlights this latter hypothesis, which is undoubtedly too often overlooked.

Right from the start, he throws the cards on the floor. Heart trump? To the death! No, it is not a royal carpet that reigns supreme on the arena stage, but a pool of blood spreading before our shocked eyes. A pool? More precisely, a veritable puddle that the feet of various enemies violently trample. The shadows of the liquid waves haunt the stones of the nocturnal ruins. In the distance, the cawing of crows... fleeting spectators!

Enemies, victims? Is one not the other, and the other not the one? Stéphane Braunschweig's staging highlights Jean Racine's words in red to emphasise the evils of a burning belligerent present. How can one love in the memory of crime? How can one behave in the mirror of past horror? How can one extend a hand that is forever bloodstained? Devastated by the murders committed during the Trojan War, Racine's characters – marked by the stigma of the curse of the Atreides, punctuated by crimes, betrayals, revenge and human sacrifices – attempt to rebuild themselves while striving to rebuild their empire. All the more so as the embers of a conflict that no one believes to be over are still smouldering and could reignite at any moment. War not only destroys biological lives, it also ruins the psychological lives of the surviving souls.

Behind the poet's words, which fly the flag of Love: "I offer you my arm. Can I still hope/ That you will accept a heart that adores you? " (Pyrrhus to Andromache) lies an eternal, traumatic and exacerbated war of egos. It is a question of who will satisfy their pride, their whims, their need for domination, their tricks of revenge and their manipulations the most and the fastest. "Whether I lose myself or not, I think of revenge" (Hermione).

To convey this malaise, this disorganisation of beings, these indelible wounds of war, Stéphane Braunschweig breaks with the usual social norms. In his staging, the women no longer exude feminine charms but adopt very masculine attitudes. All dressed in black, even their hair dyed brown (with the exception of Andromache, the only pure character), these tragic ladies move around in trousers. Hermione (Chloé Réjon), a Machiavellian character, wears combat boots and flirts with love like a power-hungry man uses politics. We thus see the daughter of Helen and Menelaus serving Orestes a glass of alcohol without the elegance of her sex, but on the contrary, with the strategic rigour of an army officer...

Furthermore, the potential main couple of Andromaque (Bénédicte Cerutti) and Pyrrhus (Alexandre Pallu) is presented in total disharmony. At no point can seduction be the key word for this duo, such that the audience cannot imagine, nor even wish to imagine, a possible love between the two protagonists. The ruler of Epirus, played by a tall actor whose performance is marked by vehement and verbose rage, falls in love with a frail, diaphanous and discreet Andromaque, stifling any romantic reverie.

Finally, the interpretation of Jean Racine's verses breaks with the original musicality of the text. Achilles' son – who murdered Hector, king of Troy and husband of Andromache – dressed in khaki fatigues, presents himself as a crude warrior, overwhelmed by his fury. More eager for love than loving, he demands what is his due – Andromache, his captive – by force, as an object of desire, almost a merit, rather than out of romantic and sensitive inclination. He is ready to burn all his ships by going to war against his own side to obtain the "object" of his desire, ready to love, educate and raise even the son of his beautiful enemy... but also ready to kill him if he does not get his "toy". Love? Caprice? Madness?

Orestes (Pierric Plathier), ambassador of the Greeks and son of King Agamemnon, is certainly in love with Hermione, although she does not reciprocate his feelings. However, through his acting, he evokes the attitude of a practical, effective and strategic emissary, articulating both verse and prose with equal skill! Advised by Pylades (Jean-Baptiste Anoumon), his friend and confidant, who is just as skilled a speaker, the two characters organise themselves and unite to win the "game".

Hermione (Chloé Réjon) also claims her right, her promise of marriage to the King of Epirus. The most perverse and diabolical character, she manipulates, demands, calculates, and pushes others to crime with cold blood and a Luciferian eye!

Stéphane Braunschweig's bold approach succeeds in highlighting hatred rather than love, without changing a single word of Racine's language, simply through his staging (set design, costumes, direction of actors, etc.). He presents the warring parties as the true victims of a societal context that is beyond their control! In this interpretation, love is a struggle, a negotiation, a war of interests, a dark force, a tool of unreason...

A game of chess where the heart fails, because a people sent to the front, even if victorious, is a people that loses face by destroying its roots!

Food for thought!

Nathalie Audin

Direction and set design: Stéphane Braunschweig

Distribution

Andromaque : Bénédicte Cerutti

Pyrrhus : Alexandre Pallu

Hermione : Chloé Réjon

Oreste : Pierric Plathier

Pylade : Jean-Baptiste Anoumon

Cléone : Clémentine Vignais

Phoenix : Jean-Philippe Vidal