Maud Le Pladec's Static Shot and Christophe Rauck's Richard II: Rage and Pain

The article reviews two performances that channel the rage and pain of the Covid era: Maud Le Pladec's ballet Static Shot and Christophe Rauck's staging of Shakespeare's Richard II. Static Shot, created during the first lockdown by Le Pladec, director of the Centre chorégraphique national d'Orléans, is a manifesto for a body prevented from moving. It features 24 dancers of the Ballet de Lorraine in ultra-colorful tracksuits and sparkling bodysuits designed by Christelle Kocher, performing to a tribal score by Pete Harden and Chloé Thévenin that blends Ravel's Boléro with Xenakis's Psappha. The piece premiered at the Opéra national de Lorraine in Nancy and was later presented at Nuit Blanche in Paris under the Canopée des Halles dome, alongside a Koché fashion show and a waacking performance by Mounia Nassangar. Le Pladec, who previously worked with Thomas Jolly on Eliogabalo and with Valérie Donzelli on the film Notre Dame, breaks from her usual abstract, rational choreography to embrace a permanent ecstasy. Richard II, directed by Christophe Rauck at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre, features Micha Lescot as the capricious king and Éric Challier as Bolingbroke. The play, written by Shakespeare in 1595 after two years of theater closures due to plague, deals with arbitrary power, violence, and betrayal. Rauck's production uses Olivier Oudiou's lighting and Ange Leccia's video projection of a metaphorical sea. The performances run through October 2022.