When it comes to talking about Jean-François Sivadier, we are faced with a paradox. The man is both apparently transparent and enigmatic. Luminous, he seems to jealously guard his shadowy and secretive zones. His presence, mineral and massive, inhabits the banal space where he has found himself, while dissolving in an ethereal and dreamlike way. He is one of the greatest French theatre and opera directors, one of the most celebrated, as well as an author, but… But what? He escapes, including those close to him, who are witnesses to this elusive dimension.
Meanwhile, the contender is putting on one of the best back-to-school shows, with this Family portrait, a story from Atrideswhich can be seen at the Théâtre de la Commune (until 29 September), in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), and then on tour throughout France until the end of the season: four hours of chemically pure pleasure, which return to the spectators like a pancake between laughter and fear. The show, created with a promotion of student-actors from the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art, is offered as the quintessence of his art as a director-author, where paradoxes dance the sarabande, between tragedy and comedy, erudite theatre and popular celebration, devastating energy and melancholy.
At 61, he seems to have gained even more freedom. However, they were not lacking in the shows performed with the company led by his alter ego Nicolas Bouchaud, The Marriage of Figaro (2000) a Othello (2022), through The life of Galileo (2002) or King Lear (2007), as well as in opera, where he imposed other codes, both with La Traviata (2011) that with Don Juan (2017) or Carmen (2010).
“Space of freedom”
Is it because theatre has always been close to your skin, or almost, that you can turn it into a vast playground where everything is possible, to the greater joy of the spectators? “I don’t know what wove this artistic fiber that contaminated us, my brother [Pierre-Michel Sivadier, pianiste, compositeur, chanteur et auteur] me toohe wonders. Perhaps it was formed in a somewhat mythical episode of our family: before we were born, our parents traveled around Central Africa, from village to village, with their small traveling cinema business. »
When the two Sivadier brothers are born, the adventure ends, which certainly leaves a smell of nostalgia. The parents manage the workshop of a service station in Le Mans. For as long as he can remember, Jean-François Sivadier creates puppet shows in his bedroom and founded a theatre club at his school from the age of 10. First show: an adaptation of donkey skinaccompanied by imitations of Claude François. This eclecticism and this taste for French variety will always be there, throughout a journey where the theatre was like a maternal womb that he never abandoned.
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