The Compagnie Legrand Ménestrel accompanies Les Amis de Jacques Cœur on a promenade through staged readings in Bourges. Period costumes and scenic displays frame the encounters, giving historical characters a presence along the route. The performance draws on the city’s past through spoken scenes, with the company adding its theatrical voice to the association’s heritage storytelling.
Tag: theatre
Jacques Cœur: Costumed Readings in Bourges
Volunteers from Les Amis de Jacques Cœur take on period dress to tell the story of the Bourges figure and his era. Their theatrical readings unfold beside the Nuits Lumières displays, adding spoken scenes to the visual setting. Costume, performance and historical narrative combine to bring a familiar name in Berry’s heritage into human focus.
Bellegarde: Castle History Through Theatre
Theatrical sketches punctuate a wandering visit through Bellegarde’s château and garden. Actors from the troupe guide the programme with the town’s cultural service, alternating performance with historical explanation. The building and its grounds become part of the storytelling, allowing scenes from the past to be encountered through movement and live interpretation.
Guillaume et Harold: Gaëlle Bourges’s Tapestry Tale
Longships, horses, fantastical creatures and battlefields run through an epic in episodes, with music that crackles like banners. Two versatile performers stage the invasion of England by a certain William, Duke of Normandy, after the Bayeux Tapestry. Physical theatre and object theatre meet in the hands of Gaëlle Bourges, who blends eras and styles with humour and poetry. Guingamp, at Place du Champ-au-Roy, holds a staging for ages six and over.
Les chevaux dansent à la bodega: Equestrian Cabaret
In Les chevaux dansent à la bodega, horses perform to music in an equestrian cabaret in La Gacilly. A Spanish feria supplies the show’s festive theme, with lively rhythms directing the horses’ dancing. Sangria accompanies the audience’s experience, extending the bodega atmosphere beyond the performance itself.
Hop ad hoc: Musée Breton and Kernault Theatre Tours
The actresses of Hop ad hoc take the architecture of the Musée Breton and Manoir de Kernault as their starting point. Their theatrical visits reinterpret the buildings with humour, breaking with the format of a conventional guided tour. The programme links both heritage sites, inviting participants to begin at one and continue the experience at the other.
Parler Pointu — Hélène François & Benjamin Tholozan
Benjamin Tholozan recalls learning to erase his southern accent in Parler pointu. Personal storytelling and a gallery of characters examine why some ways of speaking are associated with success and legitimacy. Co-written with Hélène François, who also directs, the play combines linguistic inquiry with comedy and music by Brice Ormain.
George, la fille en pantalon
Cie Burdin-Rhode brings George Sand’s colorful, politically engaged life to the stage through visual theatre. Developed in residency, the performance approaches the writer as both a literary figure and an engaged public voice, shaping her story through images and theatrical composition. Its all-ages format introduces younger audiences from age seven to a major French author while giving adults a focused portrait of her public commitments.
La Guérouée de Gâtines
La Guérouée de Gâtines brings George Sand’s ethnographic vision into live performance as part of the Festival des Traditions Paysannes. A slide show, animated scenes and readings from her texts combine documentary attention with the immediacy of the stage. The program looks toward the rural customs and communities that informed Sand’s understanding of Berry. Les Gâs du Berry, an emblematic ensemble from the Nohant area, then draws on her country novels for its own production. Their presence gives voice, movement and collective memory to material often encountered only in books. In Valençay, the result links literary interpretation with a living tradition sustained by performers whose identity remains closely tied to Sand’s home territory.