Cultural events

During conference week, delegates will be able to attend a large variety of cultural events (see also a yearly calendar of events celebrating Shakespeare).

Some events are by invitation, but will require a free registration, others are paid events, for which delegates can purchase discounted tickets.  In all cases they will need to show their conference badge for access.

For events requiring registration or payment, a limited number of seats are available. Tickets will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis.

Please register online by March 31, 2014 for every event and reception you wish to attend. You will need to show your invitation ticket, conference badge and picture ID to gain access to the receptions.

Exhibitions

Participants can visit the following exhibitions during the week. In some cases, free registration is required as some museums only accept small groups.

Daily programme

  • Monday April 21: Dinner-trip on Bateaux-mouches on the Seine, or pre-screening of Othello, directed by Orson Welles, in a digitally remastered print
  • Tuesday April 22Film-concert, Hamlet, directed by Svend Gade, with an original score by Robin Harris (invitation of the Société Française Shakespeare).
    Due to Patrice Chéreau’s untimely death, the option for Comme il vous plaira, Théâtre de l’Odéon/Ateliers Berthier, is replaced on Thursday April 24 by Tartuffe, directed by Luc Bondy
  • Wednesday April 23: Birthday party, including a piano recital and the reading of excerpts from Lettres à Shakespeare
  • Thursday April 24I Capuleti e i Montecchi, directed by Bruno Campanella, Opéra Bastille; or Shakespeare’s Macbeth, directed by Ariane Mnouchkine, Théâtre du Soleil (Cartoucherie)
  • Friday April 25Les Enfants du Paradis, directed by Marcel Carné, Cinéma Le Louxor; or Giordano Bruno’s Candelaio, directed by Angela Antonini and Paola Traverso
  • Saturday April 26Othello, directed by Léonie Simaga, Comédie française/Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier
  • Sunday April 27: Generaly assembly of the Société Française Shakespeare
    Visit to the crypt of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, and a performance: “Royal Imagery”

Description of events

21 April : Pre-release screening of Othello, dir. Orson Welles

(USA/Italy/Morocco/France, 93’, B&W)

Othello, Orson Welles (1952). © 2013 WESTCHESTER FILMS, INC. All rights reserved.
Othello, Orson Welles (1952). © 2013 WESTCHESTER FILMS, INC. All rights reserved.

A few years after the release of Macbeth in 1948, director Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil) decided to adapt another play by Shakespeare: Othello. The shooting proved chaotic: the first producer abandoned the project, the film had to be unexpectedly recast and a number of financial problems forced Welles to interrupt shooting several times. The result is a stunning adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy. The actor-director, working alongside celebrated decorator Alexandre Trauner, played on the contrasts between light and shadow in each shot of this aesthetically amazing Othello. The film, which was rewarded with the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival in 1952, has been digitally remastered for this release.

Date: 21 April 2014 at 20:00. Registered participants are invited free to this pre-release screening upon registration (limited seats available).

For other screenings starting April 23, participants may obtain discount tickets (5€) with their conference badge(offer valid for the first 100 tickets).
In partnership with Carlotta Films.

Address:

Le Nouveau Latina
20 rue du Temple
75004 Paris

Métro: Hôtel de Ville (lines 1, 11), Châtelet (lines 1, 4, 7, 11, 14)

22 April : Film-concert : Hamlet , dir. Svend Gade and Heinz Schall

(Germany, 110′, 1921, silent film)

Original score by Robin Harris

Hamlet, Svend Gade, starring Asta Nielsen
Hamlet, Svend Gade, starring Asta Nielsen. © Deutsches Filminstitut, Frankfurt

World premiere of the original score by Robin Harris (2014), commissioned by the Société Française Shakespeare, performed with Laura Anstee

The film will be introduced by Prof. Judith Buchanan (University of York).

Date: 22 April 2014 at 19:30 (duration: 1h50).

Event open to the public, with prior reservation. Conference participants are invited to the premiere upon registration.
To reserve/purchase tickets, please click here.

Address:

Auditorium Saint-Germain
4 rue Félibien
75006 Paris

Métro: Mabillon (line 10), Odéon (line 4)

24 April: I Capuleti et i Montecchi

An opera by Vincenzo Bellini in two acts. Libretto by Felice Romani.

Les Capulet et les MontaiguVenue: Opéra Bastille

When he adapted Romeo and Juliet, the librettist Felice Romani chose to go back in time past Shakespeare, to the Italian origins of the legend. He tightened the storyline, editing out Mercutio, the nurse, the moonlight and the nightingale… The drama becomes more somber, the quarrel between the two families a veritable feud. The music of the two lovers, whose lives are crossed and intertwined, overwhelms the soul and illuminates the world. Under the baton of Bruno Campanella, Ekaterina Siurina and Karine Deshayes lend their voices to the lovers, themselves embraced by Bellini’s intensely dramatic music.

Bruno Campanella Conductor
Robert Carsen Stage director
Michael Levine Sets and costumes
Davy Cunningham Lighting
Alessandro di Stefano Chorus master

Paul Gay Capellio
Ekaterina Siurina Giulietta
Karine Deshayes Romeo
Charles Castronovo Tebaldo
Nahuel di Pierro Lorenzo
Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Address:Logo_OperaParis

Opéra Bastille
120 rue de Lyon
75012 Paris

Métro: Bastille (lines 1, 5 and 8)
RER: Gare de Lyon (lines A and D)
Bus: 20, 29, 65, 69, 76, 86, 87, 91

Dates: April 24, 2014 (opening night performance) at 19:30 (duration: 2:53). A second performance is available on April 26, 2014.

20% discount. This offer is reserved for registered participants to Shakespeare 450 and to members of the Société Française Shakespeare. It is not retroactive and cannot be combined with other offers and is restricted to performances on April 24 and 26, 2014 at 19h30, for 1st category seats.
To purchase tickets, please tick the appropriate box on the registration form. You will receive a promotional code which you will need to book your ticket on the Paris Opera website. Please note that this offer expires January 5th, 2014.

For more information and a video presentation, click here: I Capuleti e i Montecchi – Video presentation.

24 April: Macbeth, William Shakespeare

In French without subtitles.

Directed by Ariane Mnouchkine
Music by Jean-Jacques Lemêtre

Cast of the Théâtre du Soleil, Cartoucherie

Macbeth Cartoucherie

“Evil stands behind the door. You can hear it scream. Macbeth should never had thought of opening the door. Too late strikes like lightning.
Be warned! We think we should never allow the Macbeths to open the door. Evil is ready, lying in wait for just such a moment. Be warned! Evil knows no stop. Are you prepared?”
Hélène Cixous, February 1, 2014

Address:

Cartoucherie de Vincennes
Route du Champ de Manœuvre
75012 Paris

Métro: Château de Vincennes (line 1) then bus 112 or free Cartoucherie shuttle (in French: ‘Navette‘), stationed across the street from the bus terminal

Dates: April 24, 2014 at 19:30 (duration: TBA). A second performance is available on April 26, 2014.

25 April: Les Enfants du Paradis, directed by Marcel Carné

(France, 190′, 1945, with English subtitles.)

Special film screening at the historic Louxor cinema, designed in 1921 by architect Henri Zipcy and recently reopened to the public. The cinema features a neo-Egyptian façade with a mosaic by decorator Amédée Tiberti.

Louxor : Salle Youssef Chahine

In Children of Paradise, Shakespeare is performed on a stage of the Boulevard du crime

enfants-du-paradis-othello

Address:

170 Boulevard de Magenta
75010 Paris

Metro: Barbès-Rochechouart (lines 2 and 4)
Bus: 30, 31, 54, 56, 85
RER: Magenta, Gare du Nord (lines B, D, E)

Date: April 25, 2014 at 19:30. Registered participants will be able to purchase discounted tickets by contacting Sylvie Vanston: sylvie.vanston@wanadoo.fr.

25 April: Candelaio, by Giordano Bruno

In Italian, with French subtitles.

with Angela Antonini
Adapted and directed by Angela Antonini and Paola Traverso
Sound design and editing Paola Traverso
Light design Martin Emanuel Palma
Video Massimo D’Orzi

Candelaio

The Candlemaker (Candelaio) is a five-act comedy written by Italian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician Giordano Bruno in Paris in 1582. It summarizes Bruno’s philosophical positions through a vivid representation of contemporary society.

In this production the eccentric structure of the play turns into a monologue interpreted by Angela Antonini who plays all the characters, passing from one mask to another, using different voices, clothes, gestures and various Italian dialects (Neapolian, Sicilian, Florentine, Venetian).

Théâtre Les Déchargeurs

3 Rue des Déchargeurs
75001 Paris

Metro: Châtelet (lines 1, 4, 7, 11, 14)
RER: Châtelet / Les Halles (lines A, B, D)

Dates: 25 or 26 April at 19:00. Participants may purchase tickets at the theater or online.

For further details click here : Candelaio (production);  Il Gigante Produzioni (company)

26 April: Othello, by William Shakespeare

In French, without subtitles.

Léonie Simaga Director
Cast of the Comédie Française.

vieux-colombier

Following studies in literature and political science, Leonie Simaga trained at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art. In 2005, she joined the Comédie-Française, becoming its 520th member in 2010. Her performances include the title role in Kleist’s Penthesilea directed by Jean Liermier, Polly Peachum in Brecht’s Threepenny Opera directed by Laurent Pelly, Hermione in Racine’s Andromache directed by Muriel Mayette-Holtz and Silvia in Marivaux’s Game of Love and Chance directed by Galin Stoev. At the Comédie-Française, she has directed Nathalie Sarraute’s Over Nothing at All and presented a carte blanche event based on Marguerite Yourcenar’s Memoirs of Hadrian. Beyond the themes of jealousy and gullibility, she views Othello as a meditation on this unjustified and permanent hatred of a civilization for individuals condemned to fight their entire lives in order to escape the defamatory label of “negro”.

Venue: Théâtre du Vieux-Colombierlogo-vieuxcolombier

Address:

21 rue du Vieux-Colombier
75006 Paris

Métro: Saint-Sulpice (line 4), Sèvres-Babylone (line 10)

Date: 26 April 2014 at 20:00 (duration: approx. 2h30). Please note that this performance is now *sold out*. You can still purchase tickets for an alternate date, notably for April 30. (May 8 is also sold out.)

Limited discount seats available (23€ instead of 31€). To purchase tickets, please use the conference website. It is recommended to purchase tickets at the moment of registration.

For more information on this performance, click here: Othello, Comédie Française.

Museums

Participants will have the opportunity to visit several exhibitions dedicated to Shakespeare during the week.

Musée Victor Hugo

Hugo, father and son. Photography by T.B. Hutton
Hugo, father and son. Photography by T.B. Hutton

By invitation of the Museum. Scheduled visits for conference delegates.

Victor Hugo lived on the second floor of the Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée from 1832 to 1848. He wrote some of his major works there: Marie Tudor, Ruy Blas, Les Burgraves, Les Chants du crépuscule, Les Voix intérieures, a large part of Les Misérables, and was visited by Lamartine, Vigny, Dumas and Gautier. The visit of the apartment illustrates the three main stages of his life (before, during and after exile) through the display of his furniture, different memorabilia and some astonishing interior decoration carried out during his exile in Guernesey.

The museum is celebrating the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth with an exhibition on François-Victor Hugo, one of Shakespeare’s best-known French translators. The life and work of Victor Hugo’s youngest son will be illustrated by paintings, drawings, pictures, as well as by a wealth of manuscript sources and rare books and documents from the museum’s archives. François-Victor’s prefaces to his translations — published by Michel Lévy then by Pagnerre, from 1857 with the Sonnets and from 1859 to 1866 for the plays — also constitute an important contribution to Shakespeare studies. François-Victor Hugo’s work, which comes on the heels of the rediscovery of Shakespeare by the Romantics, supported by his father’s passion for the Bard, was to be prefaced by Victor Hugo’s William Shakespeare. The exhibition will give visitors a glimpse in the life of his son, François-Victor.Musée V Hugo

Maison de Victor Hugo

6 Place des Vosges
75004 Paris

Opening hours during the conference week: 10h-18h, Tue-Sun.

Musée Delacroix

Eugène Delacroix, La mort d'Hamlet après le duel
Eugène Delacroix, La mort d’Hamlet après le duel (The Death of Hamlet after the duel), lithograph, 1834-1843, Paris, Musée Delacroix. RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre), René-Gabriel Ojéda

Exhibition around William Shakespeare with works from the collection of the Eugène Delacroix museum
April 1-June 30 2014logo-musee-delacroix

www.musee-delacroix.fr

Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) was a learned artist. An avid reader, he loved music and often went to the theatre. In the 1820s and 1830s, he eagerly followed the changes in French theatrical practice. He was attracted by new notions on play-acting, notably those coming from England, as well as from the posthumous publication of Denis Diderot’s Paradox of Acting, which drew him to compare the abilities and artifice used by actors with the painter’s. In his Journal, an entry of January 1847 reads: ‘A painter must always improvise when he paints, and this is the crucial difference with the actor’s task.’

William Shakespeare and his work hold a special place in Delacroix’s paintings, drawings and engravings. The painter often mentions the English playwright in his Journal, observing how deeply Shakespeare had helped shape English culture: ‘The English are all Shakespeare. He has made them what they are in everything” (April 4, 1849). He also attended a performance of Hamlet in 1827 at the Théâtre de l’Odéon featuring Harriet Smithson, the famous English actress who so impressed Parisian audiences in the part of Ophelia. Delacroix was fascinated with Hamlet, the sensitive and tormented prince. As early as 1825, when he was only 27, he painted the scene of Hamlet and his father’s ghost (Cracow, Muzeum Universytetu Jagiellonskiego). In the early 1830s, he undertook a series of lithographs on Hamlet, in the same vein as his series to illustrate the French translation of Goethe’s Faustus, in 1827. In 1843, Delacroix himself paid for the publication of thirteen of his sixteen drawings. The Delacroix museum is fortunate enough to have all sixteen lithographic stones he used.

On the occasion of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth celebrated in Paris, the Eugène Delacroix museum, located in the painter’s last home, where he lived from 1857 until his death in 1863, will show pieces from its collection, including the rarely-shown lithographic stones, as well as printed lithographs. Other Shakespeare-related works will also be exhibited, such as the moving Romeo and Juliet at the tomb of the Capulets.

Registered conference participants will be allowed to visit the museum free of charge.

Address:

6 place de Furstenberg
75006 Paris

Métro : Saint-Germain-des-Prés (line 10) / Mabillon (line 4)
Bus : 39, 63, 70, 86, 95, 96

Opening hours during the conference week: Wednesday to Sunday, 9h30 à 17h00 (doors close at 16h30).

Bibliothèque nationale de France

expo_ete_1914_gdExhibition on the Summer of 1914.

The exhibit discusses in great detail the events from July 23 to August 4, 1914, and the series of diplomatic, political, and military decisions which lead to the outbreak of the World War I.

By invitation of the BnF. Scheduled visits for conference delegates.

Performing Arts Department
A department that preserves and adds to the memory of all forms of performing arts (theatre, circus, mime, dance, etc.)
The department endeavours to store all types of materials produced before, during and after performances: scripts of plays, manuscripts, mock-ups, sets, costumes and objects, photographs, audiovisual materials, posters, drawings and prints, programs and press cuttings, etc., as well as books and reviews. Every expression of live performance is represented in its collections: theatre, circus, dance, puppetry, street, etc., as well as cinema, television, and radio. The department also holds a large number of archive collections and collections from personalities and institutions (theatres, festivals, companies, etc.).Logo_BnF

Address:

Quai François-Mauriac
75706 Paris Cedex 13

Métro: lines 6 (Quai de la gare), 14 and RER C (Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand)
Bus: lines 89, 62, 64, 132 et 325

By invitation of the BnF. Scheduled visits for conference delegates.

Comédie-française

Vue d'en haut sans les fauteuils de l'orchestre © Cosimo Mirco Magliocca, coll. Comédie-Française
Vue d’en haut sans les fauteuils de l’orchestre © Cosimo Mirco Magliocca, coll. Comédie-Française

Backstage visit.

The Comédie-Française was born in the century of Louis XIV — the Sun King — from the centralising passion of a ruler known for his unwavering commitment to the performing arts.

Strengthened by its achievements, its battles and setbacks, armed with its traditions and its boldness, supported by its great actors, guided by its administrators, the three-centuries old Comédie-Française is more than ever passionately committed to live performance and ready to face the perils of the stage.

Backstage visit of the Comédie-Française for conference participants.

Address:

Place du Palais-Royal
75001 Paris

Metro: Palais-Royal / Musée du Louvre (lines 1, 7)

Basilique Saint-Denis

basilique-st-denisThe St Denis basilica is the first monumental masterpiece of Gothic art. Discover the Royal necropolis and its collection of 70 sculpted recumbent statues – the only set of its kind in Europe – bathed in the multi-coloured light of the 12th and 19th-century stained glass windows.

Visit the tombs of Clovis, Charlemagne, Catherine de’ Medici, Henri IV, Louis XIII, Louis XIV, or Henrietta Maria (wife of Charles I), among many others.

1 rue de la Légion d’Honneur
93200 Saint-Denis

Visiting hours: Sunday 12h00 to 17h15

On Sunday 27 April, a special visit of the basilica is scheduled with Serge Santos, head administrator of the Basilica.
The visit will be followed by “Royal Imagery”, a performance by Chantal Schütz and Yan Brailowsky, accompanied by François Bonnet (lute), in the apse of the Basilica.

Métro : line 13, station Basilique de Saint-Denis.

Other social events

  • Dinner trip on bateau-mouche on Monday April 21, 2014. Book online through the conference website. Limited seats available.bateau-moucheAmong a large choice of bateaux-mouche, we have selected two which offer a good price-quality ratio:
    1. If you want a light dinner and hour-long trip on the Seine straight after the day’s work, you can board Paris-en-scène on Quai des Orfèvres from 19:30 (40 €)
    2. If you want a larger meal, longer trip and later departure, you can board Le Calife on quai Malaquais under Passerelle des Arts from 19:45 (67 €)

  • Birthday party, Wednesday April 23, 2014. Location details in welcome pack. (Reserved for registered participants.)

Lettres à ShakespeareThe evening will feature a piano recital and readings from Lettres à Shakespeare, edited by Dominique Goy-Blanquet, published by Editions Thierry Marchaisse, 2014, with letters from: Michèle Audin, Georges Banu, Pierre Bergounioux, Yves Bonnefoy, Hélène Cixous, Jacques Darras, David di Nota, Florence Dupont, Michael Edwards, Robert Ellrodt, Raphaël Enthoven, Jacques Jouet, Michèle Le Dœuff, Alberto Manguel, François Ost, Pierre Pachet.

  • Reception, Saturday April 26, 2014. Location details in welcome pack. (Reserved for registered participants.)

Please remember you need to register online by March 31, 2014 for every event and reception you wish to attend.