Avignon Theater Festival, my third day of the third season.
In the morning, I went to pick up my electric scooter from the service. Hopefully, there won’t be any issues with the wheels now. However, the battery ran out – even yesterday afternoon when I rode it into the city. With a twenty percent charge, it should be enough to save me an hour from the three and a half hours of walking awaiting me on Friday night. It’s starting to feel like I’m living from weekend to weekend. Right now, I’m floating between the two stages of the theater festival. Last night, I collected quite a few show titles, yet I’m not rushing, not planning a specific program. I’m strolling, resting, and if I feel like it, I’ll choose a program that’s up next.
Avignon, July 11, 2024, Thursday
11:25 #since1994
Six Taiwanese ballet dancers. I’ve never been to a ballet performance before – including today’s occasion. Dance, theater, acrobatics; according to the online description, it falls into the circus category. A performance promoting and celebrating femininity, which is at times comical and thought-provoking. I didn’t read the description in detail, so I don’t know what the poet had in mind when creating the show. But the essence is: I liked it! What was it about? It’s hard to say, it didn’t have a specific storyline. It consisted of scenes. It conveyed feelings and moods to me. At the beginning, as they depicted menstruation, childbirth, mutual support, rivalry, joy, longing for attention, longing for beauty. What I liked the most was when the girl had her hair combed by a member of the audience. And when they put makeup on each other, put lipstick on with the audience, and then put lipstick on a man; a scene later, they angrily wiped off the lipstick, to me it felt like it was saying, you can use my body – if I want to, but at other times, in a different situation, I’m angry because you’re using my body. It was an intimate performance, very intimate. It started with them already in panties and bras, but it wasn’t sexy in any way, it just had an intimate atmosphere with the flesh-colored dress. And again, truly: emotions can be expressed through dance! I feel like this one hour made me a little more sensitive. Now I’m going to rest in a park. I don’t expect shade or coolness today.
Took a nap
in the park, and listened to the audiobook. Today, the topic is the Holocaust.
17:25 los guardiola
Tango or rather ballet? Or perhaps the very cute combination of both. A dance couple, sometimes in ballet, sometimes in tango shoes. They danced short stories to Argentine tango music. The central theme of each was love, courtship, seduction, infidelity, flirtation. This is a very good program! I would watch it again.
Seven in the evening,
and I sat down in the square (not the market hall). A sudden, impulsive decision: Greek restaurant and restina. This is a beautiful day. A delicious and hearty three-course meal. Skilled chefs; talented, but still untrained young waitress girls. The dinner cost thirty-two euros, the three theater tickets today cost thirty-eight euros. After dinner, I thought a lot and walked in the crowd for a long time before I figured out the evening program.
23:00 “the sexy cabaret”
I suspect this production won’t receive professional recognition, but I really enjoyed it. A cheerful, musical show where they sang chansons that the audience already knew the lyrics to. Maybe these are already worn-out hits for the French, but they feel new and appealing to me. There was a girl who sang and danced most of the songs, in more or less clothing. However, the lingerie, handcuffs, and leash outfit bought from a sex shop were intense; the bra was just a string, covering her nipples with tape. There was a compere guy, at the beginning he was the girl’s lover, but by the end of the show, he fell in love and ran away with the girl to the sound technician guy, the real sound technician – whose position was at the back of the audience and occasionally joined in the stage dialogues, sometimes came down and sang, danced. The fourth member played the role of the background dancer girl, also a kind of court jester, with a red nose. It was a chamber theater, maybe there were about thirty of us in the small room.
Oh, and before the show, I also listened to a jazz concert on the street.
