Une cérémonie

There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. (Shakespeare, Hamlet)

Shakespeare probably wouldn’t mind his borrowed verses appearing in the middle Cérémonie. The Raoul Collectif take hold of them, as of a greased pole around which rises the irrepressible need to come together. Yes, we toast: but what for? To the expectation of something? Hoping for a fall, or some upheaval? Or is it the prospect of impending chaos that calls up some ritual that we thought we had lost sight of, and which then appears as a last resort? Raoul Collectif productions are always something of a UFO, for the protagonists themselves who happily walk on the edges of precipices to better find themselves. The celebration is about to start on a vast stage-set. Already the music is moving forward, the chairs are flying, alcohol intoxicates the heart as soon as it goes down the throat. And behind the apparent carelessness that emerges from the picture, is the drama of a society that is spreading, which can no longer even bury its dead. To the music of Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker in vigorous live interpretation, soon revolt rumbles and the Raoul Collective summon Antigone and even Don Quixote. The Greek tragedy and Cervantes come to lend a hand to this possible call for disobedience, to this questioning of violence as self-defense, to these lurking threats that must be kept in check. And if the Raoul poses the dilemma without resolving it, how can we forget this giant bird which overhangs the stage. With its beating wings, it constantly reminds us that peril is near.