EN TOURNÉE / Le Soulier de satin

by Paul Claudel
staged and directed by Éric Ruf
Saison 2024-2025
Du 19 July au 25 July
Lieu Avignon
EN TOURNÉE / Le Soulier de satin
The mere mention of some titles is enough to elicit a combination of fascination, excitement, and dread.

Discover the play

  • As a seminal literary, theatre, and audience-oriented work, Le Soulier de Satin, written from 1918 to 1923, only premiered at the Comédie-Française in 1943 in a production directed by Jean-Louis Barrault, who went through immense trouble and faced many risks to be granted Claudel’s authorisation and perform the play in German-occupied France.This “love drama”, which takes place over the course of 20 years laid out in four days, tells the story of Rodrigo and Prouhèze, the wife of governor Don Pélage, in the era of conquistadors and explorations of vaguely-known seas. “We eagerly and humbly tackled this era, said Éric Ruf, exploring the secret hidden by the poet within these four Days, or the way Claudel inscribed his illicit relationships into skilful yet personal writing.” The director is used to dealing with Claudel’s writing style, in all its musicality and brilliance, and considers it to be extremely sensible. It is deployed within a set designed to highlight the age-old connexion between the apparatus used in theatre and sailing, using the play’s foreword as a starting point: “Everything must seem temporary, in progress, sloppy, incoherent, enthusiastically improvised, and the result must include some successful parts, if possible, to avoid being tedious even in agitation. Order is the delight of sound minds, and mess is imagination’s treat.” For this 7-hour-long production, directed with Éric Ruf’s 2012 Peer Gynt in mind, joy is the thread that ties this humongous group play together.

    Production Comédie-Française
    Spectacle créé Salle Richelieu (Paris) en décembre 2024

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  • Stage version, direction and scenography: Éric Ruf
    Costumes: Christian Lacroix
    Lighting: Bertrand Couderc
    Musical direction: Vincent Leterme
    Choreographic work: Glysleïn Lefever
    Artistic collaboration: Léonidas Strapatsakis
    Assistant director: Alison Hornus
    Costume assistant: Jean Philippe Pons and Jennifer Morangier

    and the Académie de la Comédie-Française
    Sound: Samuel Robineau
    Assistant director: Aristeo Tordesillas
    Assistant to the scenography: Anaïs Levieil
    Costume assistant: Aurélia Bonaque Ferrat
    Sound assistant: Samuel Robineau

Casting