With “Report to an Academy,” a text by Franz Kafka brought to the stage by Georges Lavaudant, in a masterful performance by Manuel Le Lièvre, we are entrusted with the voice of a being caught between two worlds, forced to transform in order to find a way out. Who are we, and who do we choose to be? How far can one go in order to be accepted? And what is lost along the way when one learns to become someone else?
On stage, an ape who has become almost human delivers his account before a learned assembly. He recounts his training, his renunciations, his strategies for adapting, his patient intelligence in the face of the violence of confinement. Carried by the unsettling performance of Manuel Le Lièvre, the body constantly wavers between animality and humanity, between mastery of language and intimate resistance. Here, theater becomes a place of revelation, where irony, humor, and cruelty mingle to give rise to a profoundly political voice. Through this dizzying monologue, Kafka, through Georges Lavaudant’s staging, directly questions how we position ourselves today in order to think about tomorrow. He holds up a mirror to our contemporary societies: those that demand assimilation, impose models, and have little tolerance for fluid identities. The production invites us to listen to this ambiguous voice, neither entirely free nor wholly submissive, so as to better question what “becoming oneself” means in a world that classifies, confines, and normalizes. A theater of metamorphosis, where identity appears less as a conquest than as a constant negotiation with collective gazes and expectations. Credits Direction and lighting: Georges Lavaudant Translation and dramaturgy: Daniel Loayza Set design and costume: Jean-Pierre Vergier Sound: Jean-Louis Imbert Makeup, hair, wig: Sylvie Cailler, Nathalie Damville and Jocelyne Milazzo Set construction workshop: Albaka Costume workshop: Rémy Tremblé General stage management: Nicolas Natarianni Wardrobe, makeup, wig management: Nathalie Damville Production administrator: Juliette Augy-Bonnaud Production: LG théâtre Co-production: Les Nuits de Fourvière, Le Printemps des Comédiens La compagnie LG théâtre is supported by the Ministère de la Culture.
Price: From 0 to 20 euros.
Source: paris.fr — photo: Théâtre de la Concorde