The Stage

UK venues to host French performing artists in six-month festival

Published Thursday 8 January 2009 at 13:25 by Alistair Smith

UK venues including Sadler’s Wells, Leicester’s Curve and the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh are to take part in the first ever major season showcasing French performing arts companies in Britain.

The initiative has been led by the French Embassy in London, which has supported the project with £200,000 in administration costs. Arts Council England has also put forward £45,000 through its grant for the arts programme, while around the same amount has been put forward by European funders. The six-month festival will involve more than 20 sites across Britain.

Established artists such as Jerome Bel, Xavier Le Roy and theatre company Cheek by Jowl all feature as part of the season, which will also include the UK premiere at the Barbican Centre of Romeo Castellucci’s response to Dante’s The Divine Comedy, which was one of the highlights of last year’s Avignon Theatre Festival.

While much of the programme focuses on dance and physical theatre, there is also a strand entitled Paris Calling New Writing, in which rehearsed readings of new English translations of French plays will be performed at venues including the Bush Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Northern Stage and the Young Vic.

Edinburgh’s Traverse is to undertake an exchange programme whereby two contemporary French plays will be translated into English and two contemporary Scottish plays will be translated into French.

Alistair Spalding, artistic director of Sadler’s Wells, which is hosting a number of events as part of Paris Calling, said: “I really do think the French Embassy and Culture France should be applauded for putting the money behind this season. It shows how important culture is in France - it’s right at the centre of the political debate, unlike the situation here.

“I can’t really imagine Gordon Brown ever deciding to make culture the main thrust of any diplomatic or economic plan with another country.”