For the ancient Greeks, drama was synonymous with the vast ampitheaters in which their tragedies and comedies were played out, and to which Western theater remains faithful, from stage and proscenium to orchestra and seating. Since at least the Middle Ages in Europe, however, companies themselves have long been lured by the open road, to go in search of audiences and to entertain them with their stories. This tension between theater’s nomadic and sedentary forms continues today, according to a debate organized this past weekend by the magazine “Cassandre/Horschamp” devoted to the state of contemporary traveling theater, on the occasion of the presence of the Footsbarn Theater at the Cartoucherie (Bois de Vincennes).
Footsbarn is a long-standing practitioner of the genre, with 37 years of travels and encounters and over 50 shows to its credit. Founded in Cornwall, England, the company works since 1990 out of a semi-permanent base in the Auvergne region of France. Alternating periods of on-site work with touring, the company is perhaps not so different from others, except that Footsbarn travels by caravan, performs under its own tent, and by nature of its traveling ethic, is consequently subject to the dangers and laws of life on the road.
According to the panel assembled for the debate, which included Fabien Granier of Footsbarn and Alexandre Romanès of the Cirque Romanès, traveling theater is an endangered species in Europe and particularly in France, where the accumulation of often contradictory legislation, coupled with considerable fear of “gypsies” and their mobile homes generally, conspire against companies who aspire to live and perform wherever the road leads them. Whereas Granier noted the “pressure” the company is constantly under to “come inside” established theaters, Romanès lamented the dilemma companies face to either compromise with the constraints of the existing system or be considered artistic outlaws, in a very real legislative sense. As the writer/researcher Alix de Morant emphasized, traveling theater is first and foremost an “art of transgression” beginning with the very borders of individual identities, for the itinerant performer who goes in search of the “other” every day, even when those others may be afraid to welcome him into their presence. Added to these potential sources of insecurity are the real costs of operating a traveling company in 2008, from the soaring price of petrol to the ensuing environmental damage in the caravan’s passage. As Sabine Clément, Director of the Centre International du Théâtre Itinérant, confirmed, “Companies set out with far less ease today than ever.”
On the eve of a tour though Britain and Ireland that will occupy the company for most of 2008, Footsbarn has dropped stakes at the Cartoucherie. Although, according to Granier, the company has been invited by the municipality of Vincennes to keep a low profile in its day to day living, one of the most exciting aspects of the company’s presence in the Bois is the opportunity to see up close this vanishing way of life. With their caravan cars neatly lined up, bikes parked outside some, laundry hanging around many, and children playing about, the company is a family and a village to itself, while the brightly painted trucks and tent are a sure invitation to dream of faraway lands. Footsbarn returns here with its most popular show, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, tailor-made, it seems, to the company’s colorful, visual, burlesque style of theater, developed through all those years on the road, drawing on a multitude of cultural expressions and integrating dance, circus and mask work. Footsbarn’s current director Paddy Hayter stars as an exaggeratedly buck-toothed Bottom and a silken haired Lysander, both played with great comic aplomb.
To judge from the company’s energy and enthusiasm (and with a median age well above 40, the troupe is no longer particularly young), Footsbarn has a long life ahead of it. If laws are made to be broken, Footsbarn is set to break a few more before it goes unquietly into retirement.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (in English), to Feb. 3, Wed-Sat, 8:45 pm, Sun, 5 pm, Cartoucherie de Vincennes, Route de la Pyramide, 12e, Mº Château de Vincennes + Cartoucherie shuttlebus, 12€-25€, reservations FNAC or tel: 01.43.74.20.21.
Photo Credit: Footsbarn
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