About directionless hipsters, their parents, and the war in Europe (coming) #HF17

Vincent Macaigne is uncomfortable. He looks around nervously every time the waitresses run past with trays full of clinking glasses and slam the doors. He has barely slept, and the previous evening he has walloped the audience of the Swiss Theatre Vidy with his brutal, inimitable performance And Manque. Braced, he sat down for the interview. "Sorry, I have to find my English...", he mutters apologetically. Sympathetic face, engaging grin. He wants to do his best, but that noise is distracting. Strange, because Macaigne stuffs his theatre full of heavenly tering noise to knock spectators off their feet.

In 2013, he made his debut at the Holland Festival with Requiem 3, a hilariously brutal adaptation of the Biblical fratricidal feud between Cain and Abel (with a touch of Shakespeare, frenzied hysterical acting and gallons of fake blood). Macaigne, widely known in France as a film actor in art-house romcoms, applies in And Manque once again the tactics of scorched earth. This time with less blood, but a volcanic amount of smoke, upset play and an innovative setting. About which more later. With a double espresso in his body, he loosens up.

And Manque is a disorienting sledgehammer blow. Was that the intention?

Vincent Macaigne: 'Yes, but I don't know if I want to lose the audience in the process. For me, making theatre is a kind of accident. Everything is about the moment, and if the audience is bewildered, that's a good thing - then it stays with them. I create chaos in the hope of causing something interesting. There is indeed a lot of noise in my work, but I don't want to lose control. We look for great dynamics, from very loud to very soft, where everything is thought out. There is little improvisation in my performances, although sometimes it doesn't seem that way.'

Irritating

'So yes, that disorientation is deliberate. I want the audience to occasionally lose all experience of time. For instance, in And Manque dancing with the spectators. This deliberately lasts just a little too long, so that it becomes irritating. In this way, the passing of time suddenly becomes intensely palpable. I seek the limit with this.

And Manque began as an adaptation of Crave by Sarah Kane, right?

VM: 'Yes, well, no. I have previously worked for the arts organisation Ménagerie de Verre created a show that was based on Crave. Or rather loosely inspired. Because it was a performance with a dancer, without text. I was happy with it, though. When I wanted to repeat that performance recently for Théâtre Vidy, that dancer couldn't participate. So then I decided to work with actors, but nobody from my regular group was available either. I ended up working with a new cast and I only had three weeks - that's very short for me. We flipped everything. Now none of Crave left.'

Why does And Manque set in an art gallery?

VM: 'In the beginning, I wanted to show a story of a woman, alone in a room, isolating herself from the world more and more with wealth and art. That was the starting point. At the same time, I wanted to say something about our current culture, in which the government and the public sector increasingly hand over functions to private bodies: dubious, artificial constructions that turn public art into private art. Art thus increasingly becomes an investment object, leading to artists no longer daring to take risks. This is how the art sector eats itself up. I think that is a great danger to our culture. I wanted to say something about that.'

Generational conflict

'At the same time, And Manque about a generational conflict between a melancholic mother and her idealistic daughter. The mother Sofia married a rich man after a poverty-stricken childhood. With the fortune she amassed, she started a prestigious art gallery in the valley where she grew up, among the 'common people'. And she has secluded herself from the rest of the world. Her excess of money allows the damned part of her personality to surface, as Georges Bataille calls it: La part maudit humaine. Her daughter Liza forms the countermovement. She is the unhinged rebel who wants to tear down everything her mother has built.'

Is Liza the prototype of the directionless hipster?

VM: "Yes, she symbolises our generation. As millennials we know all about celebrities, but little about the content of their ideology and philosophy. Liza's idols are Kanye West and Ghandi, but their fame is more important that what these people actually have to say. We no longer have guiding principles, little understanding of each other, and the ability to differentiate is fading. We are disconnected but in search of footing, and we feel that discomfort. In all that misunderstanding, radicalism can arise. You can see that now politically.”

Nazigeld

My French sucks, so I had to make do with the surtitles. But even that text is hilarious and sharp. How do you write?

VM: 'Alone, at home, after rehearsals and based on the energy of the actors. I was writing based on my experiences here in Switzerland, so I went to Gstaad for a weekend to soak up the atmosphere of that mountain village. It felt dead boring, cloistered and maddeningly civilised. All the money of Europe and àll the worst of Europe comes together there, but in a sugar-sweet environment. You can smell the Nazi money, the looted art and the hidden capitals. And you feel the contrast between the valley and the mountain. I had to do something with that. For this production, I also tried to play all kinds of visual and physical elements. The text came only afterwards.'

And Manque is indeed much more evocative than the language cascade Requiem 3.

VM: 'I was thinking very visually, and had all wild set plans. I wanted to show two worlds. For instance, I had the plan to have a kind of swimming pool built above the stage, which would gradually fill up and hang right above the actress. But that was not doable. Still And Manque have an organic, living atmosphere. The idea is that this performance could also have been a stand-alone art installation. In the future, I will do another performance with only scenery and moving objects. Without people.'

I was left with a weird sense of nostalgia after the show. Also thanks to the pop classics and the family movies that came before.

VM: "This performance floats on a sense of melancholy and nostalgia. Our generation has had every opportunity to make something of life, we haven't known war, we have our pop heroes, our petroleum, our plastic, our new media. And our parents felt that everything was finished and perfect. They raised us to remain quiet and passive. The future took place in a world that did not evolve for them. That generation of baby boomers has now become arch-conservative, clinging to the past. While we are now discovering that the world is not so fantastic at all. That is very dangerous.'

Dark undertones

'When I read books about the time just before World War I, I notice that even then people wanted to cling to an idealised past. However, scientific discoveries and new ways of thinking were piling up. Those people became reactionary, unable to keep up with progress and became radical. You see the same thing happening now. I often said to my actors: this is a performance from just before the war. I was looking for a sense of urgency in their play, a dark undertone. The feeling that an inevitable war is coming. The old world is coming to an end, and what will take its place nobody knows. And Manque is thus not just about France, but about the whole of Europe.'

How much will And Manque at the Holland Festival differ from the version at Théâtre Vidy?

VM: "No idea. The show is still evolving. I'm also honestly not that happy with the current ending - it could be sharper and clearer. I am happy with our location in Amsterdam though (the Compagnietheater) in the heart of the most popular, wealthiest part of the city, with lots of nouveau riche. That's where the text comes across the strongest. But every place is special. Theatre cannot not be special. You always have to connect with the audience, and that's always a challenge. I'm scared every time."