Phèdre !
François Gremaud
In 2023, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels is supporting the festival La Bâtie and the Festival d’Automne à Paris to present Phèdre ! by François Gremaud.
Phèdre ! is not Phèdre. Phèdre ! is a comedy that looks like a conference about Phèdre, Racine's tragedy. François Gremaud has written an exhilarating score for an actor who draws upon his passion for the theatre to summon up an irresistible exclamation of joy.
Alone onstage, an orator recounts the story of Phèdre, its context, mythological origins of its characters and Racine's writing. He then ends up performing the piece, in his own way. Romain Daroles – “révélation théâtrale” of the 57th Prix du Syndicat de la critique in 2020 – is this passionate conference speaker takes on all the roles with no other accessory than a book and sublimates the Alexandrian metre with his south-west France accent. Alongside Giselle..., François Gremaud brings us the first opus in a triptych focusing on tragic female figures from classical works of the performing arts. The author and director has developed a style which consists of reducing a piece into a “paraphrase” for an orator. Without depriving it of its marvellous language and emotion it stirs up, the tragedy is twisted into a work of comedy bristling with cultural references from today's world and priceless plays on words. If Phèdre is the expression of passion, Phèdre ! is the exclamation of the joy in the de-dramatisation of tragedy.
Text : © Mélanie Jouen
Photo: © Loan Nguyen
About the artist
© Niels Ackermann
François Gremaud
In 2025, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels presents Giselle... by François Gremaud in collaboration with Royal Ballet and Opera as part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels festival in London.
Whether working alone, with Pierre Mifsud or with Victor Lenoble, or as a six-handed member of the GREMAUD/GURTNER/BOVAY collective, François Gremaud is making his own mark with the Swiss 2b company (co-founded in 2005 with Michaël Monney). (Co-)writer, (co-)actor, (co-)director, he likes to take the side of the idiots, in the philosophical sense of the term: those who, with their amused perspective, reveal our shortcomings. If he uses laughter, it's to better understand his main subject - human beings - and their prodigious capacity to do things, despite the tragedy of their condition. For him, joy is more than just nature. It is his signature, both artistic and political.
This is reflected in a repertoire considered by critics to be one of the most innovative in French-speaking Switzerland, including KKQQ, Re, Conférence de choses (the complete version of which lasts eight hours) and the trilogy he has devoted to 3 great female figures of the classical performing arts and 3 exceptional performers: Phèdre ! with Romain Daroles, Giselle... with Samantha van Wissen and Carmen. with Rosemary Standley. Gremaud is the winner of the 2019 Swiss Theater Awards and in 2022 he won the Grand Prix of the Fondation Vaudoise pour la Culture.
