A Room in India
Le Théâtre du Soleil
Ariane Mnouchkine
December 5, 2017 - December 20, 2017
Wade Thompson Drill Hall
What is the role of theater and art in a world dominated by terrorism and hostility? This is the central question at the heart of A Room in India (“Une chambre en Inde”), the latest epic by the matriarch of exploratory French theater Ariane Mnouchkine and her company Théâtre du Soleil. After astonishing Armory audiences with their two-part work Les Éphémères—“steady stream that ultimately opens out into a vista of beauty both humble in its mundane details and immense in its emotional impact” (The New York Times)—in 2009, this visionary collective returns for the North American premiere of this landmark new work, following the adventures of a touring French theater company stranded in India without a director while the world around them falls into disarray.
Performed by 35 multinational actors, this tour-de-force transcends Eastern and Western drama and features a special performance of Terukkuttu—a traditional form of theater practiced in South India. The production touches on pressing issues that societies around the globe are currently facing, from terrorism and religious extremism to climate change and gender equality. The end result is a manifesto of the power of theater to heal a community, as well as an exploration of how to talk about the chaos of a world that has become incomprehensible.
Performances
Select evenings at 7:00pm
Run Time
This performance is approximately 3 hours and 35 minutes with a 20-minute intermission. Performed in French, English, and Tamil, along with some Arabic, Japanese, Russian; English supertitles are presented throughout.
“[A Room in India is] unceasingly ambitious and admirable. Here is an artist…still seeking, still questioning, still as committed to laughter as she is to gravity … “Mnouchkine’s dream is concerned not only with the search for beauty and goodness but with resistance.”
Vulture, New York Magazine
“…Every moment here is like a masterpiece: perfectly composed visually, perfectly executed musically and dramatically.”
Village Voice
“I am only sorry that I have never seen this miraculous ensemble of virtuoso performers before. Their genius director, Ariane Mnouchkine is unequaled in her visionary take on our current historic cyclone… Don’t miss this boundless theatrical event at the Park Avenue Armory.”
Huffington Post
“Funny how four hours doesn’t feel so long when you are given the whole world in exchange. And that’s what’s on offer in the Théâtre du Soleil’s boundary-busting production of “A Room in India” ,,, In Ms. Mnouchkine’s imagination, and maybe finally ours, the theater is a woman, and so is the world.”
The New York Times
Gallery
Artists & Creatives
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Collective Creation
Théâtre du Soleil
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Director
Ariane Mnouchkine
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Music
Jean-Jacques Lemêtre
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Hélène Cixous
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Kalaimamani Purisai Kannappa Sambandan Thambiran
Related Events
Friday, December 8, 2017 at 6:00pm
Artist Talk: A Room in India
Director Ariane Mnouchkine is joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner and editor of The New Yorker David Remnick to discuss the creative process behind the development of this epic new work.
Wade Thompson Drill Hall
Les Éphémères
Director Ariane Mnouchkine and her theater collective Théâtre du Soleil explores personal stories of pain and compassion in the US premiere of this new work, reflecting our common experiences to find meaning in the mundane.
Support
A Room in India is made possible by generous grants from the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Reed Foundation, the Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation, and with the support of MAIF, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Institut Français and the City of Paris. The production is also supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council and from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
