Sentinelles

“Ah, the little labels. Always the same old story. Mozart is childhood. And what is Chopin? Harmony? Living together? Is Chopin contemplation?” Thus, Sentinelles develops, through quick-fire, amusing and sarcastic dialogues that coalesce into an unexpected theatre of the word set in motion by three remarkable actors, who literally make us see the music by using their bodies as their sole instruments. The French playwright and stage director Jean-François Sivadier drew inspiration from The Loser, a novel in which the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard imagines the interactions of a trio of virtuoso pianists over whom hangs the tutelary and intimidating shadow of Glenn Gould. Sivadier – who was awarded the Académie Française’ s 2022 Theatre Grand Prize for his work – uses that narrative motor to survey the ever uncertain lines dividing talent from genius, as well as the loving back-and-forth between music and the theatre. A remarkably long-lived creation (it has been running in France for four years), Sentinelles takes the form of an unfinished conversation between three artists who debate, with sound and fury, the movements and short-circuits of art and life.