The Road to “Andreas”
Jonathan Châtel
In this presentation I will introduce the structuring scenarios of my adaptation and rewriting of August Strindberg’s The Road to Damascus, Andreas. Based on an exploration of the character of the Stranger and observations related to the translation process, the rewriting revolves around the theme of life changes and disappearance. Andreas, a labyrinthine game in dialogue with the Strinbergian path, has also proved to be a meditation on writing and on the role of the mother figure in the creative process. Finally, I will examine my decisions when staging this immersion in the heart of an existence in crisis, at the crossroads between fall and rebirth.
Jonathan Châtel is French-Norwegian. He trained as an actor while studying philosophy and theatre. He co-founded the ELK company in 2011 and put on Ibsen’s Little Eyolf (2012), which he newly translated and adapted. This first creation received the audience award at the Impatience emerging theatre festival in 2013. His second creation, Andreas (2015), based on August Strindberg’s play The Road to Damascus premiered at the Avignon Festival and was presented at the Paris Autumn Festival 2015. He is currently preparing the production of his play De l'ombre aux étoiles, which will be presented in November (2019) at the Théâtre de la Cité-CDN in Toulouse.
Jonathan Châtel is also a director, writer and screenwriter: Les Réfugiés de la nuit polaire (documentary), Ostinato, Louis-René des Forêts (experimental film), Kirkenes (comic)... He is also a professor at the Centre d'Études Théâtrales of the University of Louvain-la-Neuve, in Belgium. In 2015 Circé published his essay Henrik Ibsen, le constructeur.