Frank Castorf has adapted Racine and combined this material with texts by Artaud. His art of theatrical and vital immoderation explores how, when it comes to this classical French author, the tragedy of existence is born from collusions between private passions and power.
Le banquier
Sulki
Un conservateur terrorisé par les plantes vertes, une mère plastifiée pour être exposée, un ballet de Saintes Vierges, des gardiens épuisés par Rodin, un ministre perdu dans une exposition de sexes, une voiture disparue au parking Rembrandt, des provinciaux amoureux des Impressionnistes, touristes galopins galopant d'une salle à l'autre, passager clandestin dans l'art premier, Picasso, Gauguin, Warhol, ils sont tous là dans ce petit monde qui ressemble au grand, dans ce musée pas si imaginaire que ça, valsant la comédie humaine jusqu'au burlesque.
Le médium
Emma meets François at an airport in France. He is an astronomer who studies the phenomenon of black holes, and Emma finds herself immediately taken with him. Their romance flourishes during a stay in the countryside. But one day, François disappears on a bicycle ride. Left alone in a big house, Emma becomes afraid and returns to Paris to continue her life as a real estate agent. Soon after, François' brother Michel contacts her and together they try to solve the mystery of François' disappearance. But when he encounters Emma, Michel begins to transform into a ghost. Emma slowly begins to realize she possesses a frightening power that she was not aware of.
Vincent and Olivier have an intense, rocky relationship: Vincent evades tenderness, just as he does desire, forcing the couple to hunt for a third partner to participate in their sexual games. Olivier has a background in the theater. He believes in, but is preoccupied by their relationship; he wants to free Vincent from the ghosts haunting him. But Vincent is locked into the past. His father, a pilot, was killed in a plane accident. Vincent’s job is a strange, uncommon one that plunges him deep into contemplation from which no one can make him budge: he deciphers plane disaster recordings. Vincent’s unconscious repression is so powerful that he hasn’t even recognized the link between his father’s death and his work. It will take the stormy encounter with Olivier for Vincent to obtain his ‘black box.’ Indeed, the two young men come to life through their connection with each other, a connection which shatters the framework of typical love stories.
Baton
On 9 January 1836, Pierre Lacenaire goes to the guillotine, a murderer and a thief. He gives Allard, a police inspector, his life story, written while awaiting execution. He also asks Allard to care for Hermine, a lass to whom he has been guardian for more than ten years. In flashbacks, from the prison as Lacenaire writes, from Allard's study as he and Hermine read, and from other readers' memory after the book is published, we see Lacenaire's childhood as he stands up to bullies, including priests, his youthful thieving, his first murder, his brief army career, his seduction of a princess, and his affair with Avril, a young man who dies beside him.
Conceited Young Man
Famed swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac is in love with his cousin Roxane. He has never expressed his love for her as he his large nose undermines his self-confidence. Then he finds a way to express his love to her, indirectly.
