Each donation will be to a UK registered Charity (Registered Charity N° 1056345)
To serve as a springboard for Important Future Projects, this autumn we created THE CABARET OF EVA LUNA / A SONG FOR CHILE, also to mark the 50th anniversary of the Coup d’Etat in Chile ! It's a collage featuring the writings and music of great Chilean artists: Isabel Allende, Pablo Neruda, Juan Radrigan, Violeta Parra, and Victor Jara , the singer and poet assasinated by the military in Chile Stadium.
STOP PRESS:
During our last performance on November 12, we heard of the death that day of Joan Jara, Victor’s widow, at the age of 96. The extraordinary monologue, which Joan wrote for her memoirs, has always been part of our play: that night our actress also played it in a very moving moment, as a homage to this great lady, to accompany her on her last journey!
Bon Voyage, Joan! Now you are reunited with Victor!
We are going to play a SPECIAL PERFORMANCE in March 2024, in tribute to Joan, as well as to celebrate the 120th birthday of Pablo Neruda!
All this is designed to be a springboard for the Company to help other, strongly related, theatre projects in future seasons: Above all, there will be recreations of the two notable hits:
- ARDENTE PATIENCE (BURNING PATIENCE) by Antonio Skàrmeta, with new performances in France and the British premiere in London.
www.ardentepatience.com
Burning Patience ( in English )
- THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS by Isabel Allende, her novel adapted for the theatre by Isabel Allende herself with Michael Batz. Directed by Michael Batz it was a tremendous success in London. We are planning the French premiere and a London revival.
www.lamaisonauxesprits.com
To find out more about these marvellous projects, follow the links !
In addition to these two creations, the Company is starting a new Latin American project, based on the texts of famous Uruguayen writer Eduardo Galeano on Football , that truly Latin American passion, as well as on his trilogy MEMORIES OF FIRE: a collaboration with the Uruguayan film director Gonzalo Arijon is currently well advanced !
All these projects, and therefore this Crowdfunding Campaign, will allow us to:
- re-forge links with Latin American artists.
- plan collaborations with Festivals in Chile (Teatro mil , Identidades, Cielos del Infinito) as well as the Avignon Festival in France.
- And especially, to cement the contacts and commitments with the co-producers that are vital and necessary to realise major projects, in France , London, and elsewhere.
Director Michael Batz signs the current show in his long line of passionate and committed work for Latin America. This commitment dates from meeting young Chilean refugees, who arrived in his high school class in London after the Coup d'état against Allende. His early theatre work was marked by the Edinburgh Festival Prize for the British premiere of the last play by Federico Garcia Lorca (great friend of Pablo Neruda). This led directly to the collaboration with Isabel Allende on the theatre adaptation of her great novel about Chile THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS. It was Isabel Allende who recommended him the text by Antonio Skàrmeta, ARDENTE PATIENCE (BURNING PATIENCE). It was staged twice in France with remarkable success. Michael Batz also worked with Garcia Marquez, and on an extraordinary project about Eduardo Galeano.
As a theatre-maker, Michael is trying to create a form of magical realism and give a voice to the “voiceless”. He has already worked for more than 15 years in London with his international troupe which also welcomes exiled and refugee artists. In London he was often the first to stage George Tabori, BernardMarie Koltès, Heiner Müller, Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Dario Fo, in close contact with the authors; many of them became friends. His greatest creation was The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende's great novel about Chile, which he adapted with the author: an extraordinary epic in 2 parts and 8 hours. Since 2003, he has worked a lot in France.
Click HERE for Michael's CV in English
The theatres of Michael Batz project booklet HERE
Today, we need your support to continue this work on Latin America and disseminate it as widely as it deserves.
Our current project allows us to prepare and plan future projects, and to start bringing together the hard core of an exceptional artistic team:
NATHALIE MILON, LEO MELO, CLARA JOLY, NATTURE HILL, SILVIA MASSEGUR, MAIKO VUILLOD and others. (See below)
THE CABARET OF EVA LUNA / SONG FOR CHILE offers a theatrical evening in two parts: THE CABARET OF EVA LUNA is a magical tragi-comic piece. We follow the lives of Chilean women plunged into the violence of a coup d'état: torture, exile and the fight against the dictatorship intertwine. A show magnificently accompanied by the songs of Violeta Parra.A SONG FOR CHILE is a poetic and musical fresco of the Chilean dream: half a century of Chilean history, from the hope born of the victory of President Salvador Allende, to its destruction by the military coup, told in the words of the great poet Pablo Neruda, Nobel Prize for literature, and through the songs of Victor Jara, iconic singer and musician, assassinated at Chile Stadium on the orders of the dictatorship.
RECENT REVIEW:
Eva Luna’s Cabaret: A Song for Chile November 13, 2023
Guillaume d'AZEMAR de FABREGUES
This column was first published on www.jenaiquunevie.com
Michael Batz stages three realistic tales from Eva Luna by Isabel Allende to commemorate the 1973 coup d'état in Chile. Beautiful work, a goose bumper show.
On stage, a woman sits at a table, a swaddled child in her arms, a basket at her feet. She sings, in Spanish, we can make out the words explanacion de su muerta. She puts the child in the basket….
Isabel Allende is the niece of Salvador Allende, president of Chile from 1970 to 1973, who died during the coup d'état that brought General Pinochet to power. In 1991, she wrote the Stories of Eva Luna, twenty-three magical-realistic tales that tell the story of Latin America. The sequel to Eva Luna where she recounts the life of a strong and passionate woman, born in a brothel, in the turbulent context of the 1950s-1980s. Eva Luna's Cabaret is part of a diptych Chile 1973-2023 which bears the memory of the fiftieth anniversary of the 1973 coup d'état. In 1993, in London, Michael Batz adapted The House of the Spirits , the first novel by Isabel Allende. Here he has retained three of these tales, set them in songs by Violette Para to give them a link, songs performed with soul by soprano Natalie Milon to music played live on stage.
Three tales, three atmospheres. The monologue of Maria the Simple, a young girl without filter whose life is taken out of well-trodden rails, who chooses to live from her pleasure and that of men. I had the opportunity to see this in Working Girls, a previous project of Michael Batz, here I had the pleasure of seeing it again, of rediscovering the fine playing and violin of Maiko Vuillod.
Alba and Clara, inspired by The House of the Spirits, the story of a woman thrown out by the van which usually throws away corpses, who will be found in the wounds left by torture, on her arms, on that of a man, a woman carried with visceral conviction by Silvia Massegur.
The cry of four women with uncertain incomes, mothers, wives of the missing, who question, is it still possible to be happy, who argue, we must go out and look for the missing. A third sequence which offers an ensemble moment to the actors.
Alternating genres, Michael Batz takes the viewer by the hand, takes him into a whirlwind of reflections, emotions, sensations, invites him to look at the world. On populism which, everywhere, resurfaces when the economic context becomes uncertain again. You will come out with your heart smiling at the destiny of Mary the Simple, your guts clenched by the woman thrown there, your hairs standing on end by this chorus of women who will have shouted at you to finally get up. (At the Théâtre de Nesle on 12/11/23 Sunday: 7:00 p.m. Duration: 1h10 / 1h10)
MORE REVIEWS :
A few years ago, an embryonic version was briefly presented at the Festival Off in Avignon, in Nîmes and in the Paris suburbs. Here are the enthusiastic responses from critics at the time:“Remarkable work: very beautiful staging, very good acting, beautiful singing performances. Before our eyes a theatrical fresco telling the history of Chile... A powerful work which deeply moved the many spectators. » JM Gautier. La Marseillaise.
“A superb show, both theatrical and musical! » Midi Libre.
“The magic of the show, because it is magical, lies in the acting... In the auditorium, there is so much support that some spectators murmur the songs sung on stage. » Echo RegionalTexts by Isabel Allende and Pablo Neruda , Songs Victor JaraMontage and Direction Michael BatzMusical Director by Léo Mélo
Set Design Isabelle Colchen
Lights Romuald Lesné
Assistant Directors Myriam Güldenpfennig and Jeanne Sibile
With: Natture Hill, Clara Joly, Silvia Massegur, Léo Mélo, Nathalie Milon, Maiko Vuillod, and others.
What will the funding be used for?
- Support for the arrival of Léo Mélo, great artistic collaborator of Michael Batz, who exceptionally travelled from Uruguay to Paris.
- Logistics for meetings with co-producers. in France and elsewhere.
- Payment of actors and actresses in the troupe.
- Recruitment of a part-time administrator and producer for the company.
- video recording of the show to make it available on DVD to potential producers
- to allow us to play our show for a SPECIAL REPRESENTATION on March 31, to celebrate the 120th birthday of Pablo Neruda, and in tribute to Joan Jara, who left us on the evening of our last performance of the year.
WE ARE LOOKING FOR A MINIMUM OF £2900 URGENTLY
- and ultimately £6000!
each donation will be to a registered Charity:
RegisteredCharity Number N° 1056345
We hope to find about 30 people quickly, who donate £100 each!
FOR THIS :
you will receive
prominent thanks in all the advertising of our future projects , aas well as priority booking for these!
And an invitation to an extraordinary, special evening with director Michael Batz and his team!
For £500 you will also receive a DVD of A SONG FOR CHILE
For £1000 Michael Batz will perform his one man show OBSESSIONS for you and your invited guests , at your home or at a venue of your choice!
WHO CARRIES THE PROJECT ?
Michael Batz and his troupe :
La Compagnie MB in Paris – Yorick International Theatre in London.
REGISTERED CHARITY N° 1056345As a Theatre-Maker, Michael Batz is trying to create a form of magical realism and give a voice to the “voiceless”. He has already worked for more than 15 years in London with his international troupe which also welcomes exiled and refugee artists. In London he was often the first to stage George Tabori, BernardMarie Koltès, Heiner Müller, Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Dario Fo, in close contact with the authors; many of them became friends. His greatest creation was The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende's great novel about Chile, which he adapted with the author: an extraordinary epic in 2 parts and 8 hours. Since 2003, he has also worked a lot in France.
Click HERE for Michael's CV in English
The theatres of Michael Batz project booklet HERE
NATHALIE MILON, one of the rare blind actresses, with a formidable stage presence, and also an extraordinary singer; she flourishes by exploring and interpreting both classical and contemporary music and the traditional and popular music of Latin America. Throughout her artistic career she has participated in various experiences: theater, dance, improvised music... She performs especially at the contemporary music festival of Santiago de Chile in Buenos Aires as well as the ensemble Soli-tutti, Accentus, Carpe diem, International Women's Choir of Paris, Rouen Opera....
LEO MELO, actor, musician, musical director, who specially came from Montevideo / Uruguay to renew his long-standing collaboration with Michael Batz, among them ARDENTE PATIENCE and COMEDIE SANS TITRE by Federico Garcia Lorca; he is also responsible for educational workshops within the company. Soon he will collaborate with Uruguayan film director Gonzalo Arijon on the "Galaeno Project.
MAIKO VUILLOD, Franco-Japanese actress, born in Caracas in Venezuela, and having ties of soil and love with South America, also accomplished violinist, and "tanguera" and specialist in Tango: she also put in -scene a tango version of Blood Wedding by Garcia Lorca! She has worked for more than 20 years in theater or cinema, passionate about exploring on stage the mixture of artistic disciplines theater, music, dance...
SILVIA MASSEGUR Peruvian and Marseillaise, bilingual actress with a dazzling passion... She lives in France and plays with original and funny directors in street and indoor shows and for two years she has also appeared in films or series (6:30 p.m., Parliament, me alive you will never be dead, etc.....). She met Michael Batz last year during a Workshop that he was leading at the Cartoucherie and she found this great man amusing and touching and immediately wanted to collaborate with him.
NATTURE HILL, originally from Guadeloupe, who met Michael's work in his master class on commedia dell'arte at her high school on her native island.
She came to Paris to participate in these adventures with her multiples talents as an actress, stage manager, and organizer: in short, she's a superwoman!
CLARA JOLY Clara began her theater training at the CRR in Lille, and she completed, in parallel, a degree in Modern Literature at the University of Lille, then a Master at the Sorbonne. In 2021, she completed her studies in the Diploma Preparatory Class of Theater Studies and created the show Maybe One and the Other. Since then, she has participated in the summer editions of the “Sorties de route” festival and acted as a performer in the creations of the company “Lilith” and “Souche Bleue Compagnie”
ISABELLE COLCHEN (Set Designer): Isabelle is also a painter and sculptor, and in her visual oeuvre works to create a “New Fauvism”, a blend of “abstract expressionism” and surrealism. She has already created the sets for several Michael Batz shows, including Working Girls.