Le Dernier Caravansérail. Odysées.

Le Dernier Caravansérail (Odysseés)

Originally uploaded by timeoutnewyork

I've just got the DVD of the film "Le Dernier Caravansérail. Odyssées.", based on the staging by the Théâtre du Soleil and directed by Ariane Mnouchkine.

My body shudders every time I remember this production I saw in Paris in December 2004, in that wonderful space Mnouchkine and all members of Théâtre du Soleil have created and established for decades.

The first scene where, in an absolutely cynical game of theatricality, recreates the crossing of a raging river at a border by Afghan illegal immigrants, a crossing that will lead to the uncertain freedom they seek in the West, and it shattered any block I might have had as a theatrical spectator. Magnificent, powerful, loaded with enough real artifice to assume it as real. The actors were in realism (who cares!); their colleagues helped them move, within view of the public, those enormous fabrics and create the raging waves of the river; the sound, loud, clear enough to be recognized as strong winds, as the noise of the running water, and as the force of a great theatre performance that was beginning.

Afterwads, scene after scene and the tragedy of emigration, of cultures in collision, of the humanity of the lost traveler. Humanity, grandeur, cruelty, evil, love, helplessness, sounds of a helicopter, of a train, yelling, crying, letters and nostalgia. I remember so much ...

That Saturday, at the Cartoucherie in the outskirts of Paris, I spent 6 hours with them, with the space itself, with its actors, with their books, with their food, reading from their walls and absorbing their performing art. I had just quit my project for my own theater company a year before, and I had done it for travelling and for the experience of devoting my life to see the world of the stage that I have had the opportunity to find, to see its greatest masters, and I was really thankful for my stay there.

This extraordinary performance lasted nearly 6 hours (including breaks for lunch and dinner), and the final response was not only the heart-felt applause, but the emotion, the crying, the offering of our hearts broken by and open to what they had delivered to us.

That night I rediscovered the loving exchanges of theater, and also the tremendous force of Artaud's words echoed in the presence of the actor in that scene, the blood and dismemberment, but Artaud whimself would have been absolutely amazed at how Le Dernier Caravansérail exposed that through the work, devotion, sincerity and honesty of the effort of all of that (already legendary in my memory) company.

Mnouchkine has remained engraved in my memory as a great director and as an ordinary person: in her theater, before the beginning of her work, she talked to the audience as if to children, hers and of others; she showed us where to sit, how to behave, what to cover with (it was 3 degrees centigrade, with no heating) and at times she scolded us... I saw her gray hair, her face with her big nose and her wrinkles, her hands, her torso thick as a grandmother's, and I was thinking, this is the woman who moved this whole world.

To my mind came the teachers of the independent theater in my country and the world I had known, those messiah (some of them) and parents (most of the others), and recognized her as part of that tradition of the theater company of the world, of travel, of many men, women and cultures and, of course, I loved her with my memories and her present, I loved her as the theatre person I am and as the orphan with no more father-master I was at that time. (1)

The DVD "Le Dernier Caravsérail. Odyssées" is a filmed version, within the theatre scene but released as a film image, which Mnouchkine usually does with each of her productions, perhaps not with the same force that is achieved in real life but as a product that becomes a beautiful example of what one experienced there. I can use my critical sense when watching it (and I'm sure I will), but I prefer to enjoy it first as if someone had edited the memories of one of the most exciting and beautiful moments of my life.

Some images I took that day visiting La Cartoucherie. Théâtre du Soleil. Paris 2004.

Video (No sound) about that day at La Cartoucherie. Paris, 2004.

(1) Antonio González Caballero, my teacher and spiritual father, died in May 2003.

Afshin Gaffarian exiled in Paris, a new life for a young Iranian actor and dancer.

Afshin Gaffarian (theholyactor.blogspot.com)

I wrote some months ago about Afshin and his Blog, The holy actor, a rare but interesting case of a Grotowskian actor in Iran, and today I've just seen a note by AFP that he is now exiled in Paris a cause of some political problems during the aftermaths of the Iranian election and taking advantage of a tour his company was having in Germany.

My idea was to write again about him and his work after some reasonable time to see how he was developing his career but this news changed everything. Here the full note (he published in his Blog):

PARIS, Nov 27, 2009 (AFP)

- "Freedom for Iran!" With these defiant wordsIranian dancer Afshin Ghaffarian ended a public performance and began a newlife as an exiled dissident in Europe.
The 23-year-old was arrested in Tehran after taking part in nationwideprotests triggered by the June re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which critics say was due to a rigged vote.
But to his amazement he and his modern dance company were allowed to travel to a theatre festival in mid-October in the German town of Muelheim afterpaying a security bond of around 10,000 euros (15,000 dollars).
Until the moment he got to the airport, Ghaffarian feared he would be stopped. But he and the rest of the company -- two actors, a musician and alighting technician -- were allowed fly out of Iran.
Iranian authorities, however, sent two official minders along with them to make sure they stayed in line.
The company gave two performances at the festival. It was at the end of the second that the dark-haired dancer decided to make his move.
"Freedom for Iran! Solidarity with the Iranian people! Where is my vote?" he shouted on stage, making the V for victory sign with one hand and with the other covering his mouth to denounce the gagging of Iran's opposition.
On the hand he raised into the air, he wore a green ribbon, a sign of support for the defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
The declaration got an enthusiastic reception from the audience, whichincluded several local journalists, and in the ensuing confusion Ghaffarianmanaged to sneak away from his official escort.
About a week later he made his way to Paris with the help of a French friend of Iranian origin who works at the Comedie Francaise, France's national theatre, and who introduced him to the city's artistic community.
Ghaffarian said he has now has applied for political asylum in France and plans on continuing his career here.
"The 'Centre International de la Danse' is interested in him," said Xavier Samson, a public relations executive who has taken up Ghaffarian's cause,referring to a major state-funded dance institute.
Ghaffarian's current bright prospects are in stark contrast to the situation he faced just a few months ago in his native country.
He said he was arrested in Tehran when he, like tens of thousands of Iranians, took to the streets to protest against Ahmadinejad's victory. The protests led to a sometimes brutal crackdown. Ghaffarian said he wasdetained and beaten by the Basij volunteer Islamist militia. "They tied me up, they threw me in a vehicle, they blindfolded me," hesaid. "We were about 40 packed in this vehicle. It was so hot with the windows closed, we could hardly breathe."
"When they saw on my ID card that I was an actor in theatre, they laughed at me, they beat me more on my head, on my back," he said.
The Basiji stole his money and confiscated a small video camera with which he had filmed scenes of protestors being attacked by security forces, he said.
Then, after 10 hours, he and his fellow detainees were dumped on the side of a road dozens of kilometres away from the capital.
Ghaffarian said he is enjoying the freedom of life in Paris.
"I am going to give my first free performance on December 13," he said with a smile, adding that it will take place in the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt. But he hasn't forgotten his friends and fellow protestors back home. Nor the other members of his dance company, who all went home after the German trip.
He keeps in touch with his Iranian friends via the social networking site Facebook and insists that the opposition movement is far from beaten.
"The green movement is still going on," he said.

Paris (AFP) / © 2009 AFP

Being and actor and dancer outside of Iran will bring him a World of opportunities for sure, but it will also change how we perceive his work now as an exiled artist. We'lll be attentive seeing what happens with him and what he can do in freedom and out of his culture, studying and working in France and developing other techniques and forming part of other schools; there will be no more surprise and contradiction about his technique and ideas in the experimental Paris and also he will have to face a big competition in any field chosen...

A new life for a young Iranian actor and dancer, no doubt about that.

Xavier Froment deported from China. Dictatorship doesn't like free artists.

Xavier Froment and Kang Luqi during a Yecao rehearsal. Beijing, 2008.

Yesterday I received a mail from Xavier Froment, director of Théâtre de Trois Oranges, confirming what one of his colleague actors said to me about a month ago when I asked him about Xavier, who had not seen or heard from him in months (1):

Hello Gustavo,

I wanted to tell you that I've left China, and I won't go back anymore. After our play "East Palace, West Palace" in January, I had lots of troubles with Chinese police. In April they put me in jail because they said that I'm a danger for Chinese Republic. I was in jail from April until May 25th, and I was deported to France. I'm not allowed to go back to China anymore. So now I'm in Paris, and I will stay here. Next week I'm going to Austria for Salzburg Festival, and come back in September. Perhaps we will perform "East Palace, West Palace" in Paris. I'm looking for that in Paris.

Perhaps you will have the occasion to come to Paris, we can see again here!

See you,

Xavier Froment

The mail has left me in a kind of shock, I knew stories about imprisoned Chinese artists, but nothing about a foreign artist who I consider a friend. Since I met Xavier I followed his work because I was very interested by the fact that he was foreign stage director working in China with Chinese actors and wanted to make a professional career in the country. He loves China, and sought to live here, he learned the language very fast and started doing theatre in Chinese only after two years of living in Beijing. He never was a rebel artist, he did not want to bring down the dictatorial Chinese government, he simply staged what he liked and what he identified with as any other contemporary artist in the world.

The Chinese government hates free beings, it hates those who want to do what they want and say what they want, whether it is for or against China: "You must not take the initiative! You should not speak until I tell you! Show me your projects first and I'll tell you if they work or not, you are not capable of knowing what is good for China, I will tell you!"

I hate the Chinese government.

Xavier was imprisoned and reprimanded, scolded and punished for staging a homosexual-themed work, they called him a "danger to the Chinese Republic" ... And I wonder where the real danger lies.

I have expressed to Xavier my support. I know how much he was hurt by this expulsion and humiliation, by this abominable action. As a foreigner in China, and writing about what I see in Chinese performing arts I have played with the possibility of some retaliation by the Chinese government and at times I felt I was going too far. Today I know what they are capable of, today I know what I expose myself by keeping on writing my personal truth.

Xavier is an example of artistic freedom and courage, but also a living example of the existence of a power that is able to crush and humiliate, because that power makes the rules for everything. And this country will be the second power of a world without Cold war and it will influence on all sides by imposing ideas, actions at all costs to defend "the Republic of China."

Hide, ladies and gentlemen, that the big yellow ogre is opening its jaws!

(1) Have no idea why Xavier wrote this mail in English, even knowing I understand French.