The Man · India
Janvier 2013 · Rukma Saluja
A THEATRICAL ENTRY
French theatre director Éric Vigner hopes to make an impact on Indian audiences at the French festival Bonjour India
For someone whose interest in theatre began at the age of seven, it is no surprise that Éric Vigner is a stalwart in the world of theatre in France today. From that young age it was a dream that translated into a beautiful reality as the years went by. In his own words, "It was like an intuition, a belief, if you like; I just knew that was going to be my life."
In India in connection with Bonjour India, a cultural festival, hosted by Alliance Française, Éric Vigner will bring to the Indian audience, the Gates to India Song which is an adaptation of a Margerite Duras story. The tale of a French consul in love with an Indian woman, with Nandita Das essaying the lead role, is a theme with universal appeal. Having a well known Indian in the adaptation, brings to it the Indian sensibility required when implanting something foreign in a country steeped in its own culture and theatre traditions. "Besides, love stories are universal," says Éric. It helps, too, that even in the original, the backdrop was India, but with little historical accuracy except perhaps that it was situated in Kolkata.
Referring to himself as an artist who directs, Vigner admits he prefers to direct rather than act. The first night is still stressfull despite him being a veteran of so many years. "But, of course," he says with a typical Gaelic movement of his shoulders, "it is scary, the first night. After preparing endlessIy one is afraid and so emotional. But after that I switch off. I have done my work. Then it is up to the actors to do their thing night after night."
He keeps trying to push the envelop. Sometimes you have to educate the audience and sometimes, there is a writer so far ahead of his time that the audience and critics understand his worth and accord him with acclaim only many years later. The audience walked out of the theatre midway through Marion de Lorme by Victor Hugo. But ten years later some well known actors and directors acknowledged the worth of that play in their careers. That is the impact Éric Vigner hopes to make with his work.
Vigner's specialty is that he tries to stay in that moment in time. He might stage his plays in the middle of a courtyard, or amidst trees. "The rapport between architecture and theatre is important." He likes to adapt real life situations into plays as he did in the case of real life courtroom trials. Éric Vigner's philosophy, which translates into theatre is that he is interested "in the other."