L’Orage

By

Alexandre Ostrovski

Direction

Denis Podalydès

Performed by

Cécile Brune, Julien Campani, Philippe Duclos, Francis Leplay, Leslie Menu, Dominique Parent, Laurent Podalydès, Mélodie Richard, Nada Strancar, Geert van Herwijnen, Thibault Vinçon, Bernard Vallery

Adaptation – Laurent Mauvignier

Denis Podalydès brings new depth to the tragi-comic humanity of Ostrovsky’s work.

We find ourselves in Kalinov, a part of Russia which is a far cry from the artistic and intellectual buzz of Moscow. Conservatism reigns in this small village which is constrained by rigid social structures, the power of religion, ignorance, and alcohol. This is where Katerina, wife of an unassuming husband, falls in love with Boris, who becomes her lover. Cornered by her fears and desires, the young woman decides – for the first time in her life – to follow her heart. A few songs. Costumes which set the scene in the 1990s. A set with a view out onto the immense stretches of the Volga River. An experience shared with the audience. “This piece owes its beauty to life, that same life which lights up and torments all of its characters, whether they tend towards inertia and relativism or freedom and the absolute” – Denis Podalydès, member of the Comédie-Française. His version of this piece by Ostrovsky (1823-1886) is full of the life-force that feeds humanity and its contradictions: weak yet violent, earth-bound yet mysterious.