The British Irina Brook, who has held the keys to the National Theatre of Nice since January 1st, gently and reservedly presented “her” first season.
This is her first experience as a theater director, “It has always been my dream to have a theater,” said the director, who as a teenager knew the backstage of the Parisian theater Bouffes du Nord, directed for more than 35 years until 2010 by her father Peter Brook, an international reference.
She says she was “incredibly well received” in Nice, especially by the mayor Christian Estrosi, who, however, had fully supported her predecessor Daniel Benoin who, after 12 years and against all regulations, wanted to stay on by sharing the role with actress-director Zabou Breitman.
The standoff with the Minister of Culture Aurélie Filippetti ended with the Mayor of Nice backtracking, having to settle for sharing with other commissioners in the selection of the new leadership.
And he made a fortunate decision in appointing Irina Brook, who seems to have been an excellent choice, and the polite exchanges between the two suggest a climate of complicity has been established between the new mistress of the venue and the political power figure of the city and the metropolis.
An evident sign of this collaboration is the “extra muros” program, which will bring some performances to the small towns of the Metropolis, while an animation and educational activity is planned for neighborhoods and schools, one of the strong aspects of the Nice mayor’s policy.
Moreover, this dreamer would have loved to go on wanderings with her company to create “dream theatre” as in the past: “I totally believe in theater on all fronts. I want to share theater with people who don’t know it,” she says. Can we imagine that the beautiful valleys of the Nice hinterland could be the setting for these theatrical escapes?
Irina Brook, herself English, born in France, artistically trained in the United States, presents a program combining cultures. “What is mixed, hybrid, diverse is richer.” The season features 40 titles, with significant diversity aimed at attracting a wide and varied audience.
For the kickoff in September, Irina Brook will rework an “atypical” musical creation in the English language, based on “Peer Gynt” by the Norwegian Ibsen.
Furthermore, having staged five of Shakespeare’s plays in French, she dreams of creating an “international festival” of the playwright in Nice with surtitles. Why not with a Georgian or Czech troupe? Shakespeare is “universal,” his plays are performed worldwide, appropriated by many, she emphasizes.
For this year, we will have to be content with “Shake Nice!”, the “first small international Shakespeare festival” which will take place in January and February.
Could Nice become the French city where the most famous playwright’s plays are performed continuously? The idea would be excellent, and Christian Estrosi would be wise to grasp its cultural uniqueness, even if he loves the local theater culture, facing “the Bard from the Globe”, one cannot but tip one’s hat!
Finally, driven by feminism, the program also plans for a “spring of women” in May, honoring actresses or shows written by women.
We happily welcome this debut of Irina Brook, who, in her presentation, cites the words of Jean Vilar: “the art of theater finally takes on its full meaning only when it succeeds in assembling and uniting.” To which she adds her own: “A theater for everyone. A theater open to the horizon.”
