Marchland

Franco – British theatre company Théâtre Volière is coming back to London with Marchland : a season of performances from the edges and in-between places of Europe. Based in Alsace, Théâtre Volière have always been fascinated by the turbulent history of this border region between France and Germany. Marchland is their response to the crisis of identity currently sweeping Europe.

A recurring ‘rendez-vous’, Marchland will run each February from 2018 to 2020 at the historic Bridewell Theatre turned into a unique pop-up space. The former swimming pool will be transformed into a central European café and fitted with an immaculate black box theatre for the occasion.

Here is a selection of some of the performances focusing on French history and culture  :

Arnika is a Théâtre Volière production that centres around a group of families in the Vosges mountains in 1951. Rebuilding their lives after the horrors of the Nazi occupation, they struggle to live with a terrible secret.

Evocation, a colloboration between Théâtre Volière and French puppetry company La Soupe revisits the Pierrot Lunaire poems of Albert Giraud (translated into English), creating a piece that takes an unflinching look at the cultural borders between the UK and continental Europe.

Maiden in The Moor are early music specialists reviving the music of Occitania, a vanished kingdom that once straddled Southern France and Northern Spain. The Occitan Troubadours sang of loyalty, love and longing, and their language and music survived through travelling poets and illuminated songbooks long after their culture was devastated by the Albigensian Crusade.

Marchand runs from February 3 to March 3 at the Bridwell Theatre, 14 Bride Ln, Fleet St, EC4Y 8EQ. Click here for the complete programme.