Poignant and illuminating, this production was created by Greggory with Chéreau’s longtime colleagues: Anne-Louise Trividic, a beloved and respected scriptwriter, Dominique Bruguière, his former lighting engineer, and Jean-Pierre Pancrazi.
“Patrice Chéreau is a part of my life,” writes Pascal Greggory. “He brought me seriousness, made me learn the effort of working, opened the doors of intelligence, and the secret worlds of the great creators to me. … I would like this reading to be both intimate and universal. From letters that he wrote to me (we wrote a lot of letters) to his texts on his stage direction, his theatrical and cinematic thoughts. That is what I want to the audience to discover.”
Based on the letters and texts of Patrice Chéreau
Pascal Greggory, Performer
Anne Louise Trividic, Dramaturg
Jean-Pierre Pancrazi, Stage Director
Dominique Bruguière, Lighting
About Pascal Greggory
Born in Paris in 1953, Pascal Greggory trained as an actor at the Cours Périmony and began performing in the theater. He made his screen debut in the 1975 production of Docteur Françoise Gailland starring Annie Girardot. His breakthrough came four years later in André Téchiné’s biopic Les soeurs Brontë, portraying the sole brother of the famous literary trio opposite Isabelle Adjani and Isabelle Huppert. This success was followed by several appearances in works by Nouvelle Vague director Eric Rohmer, including Catherine de Heilbronn (1982) and Pauline à la Plage (1983).
In 1987, Greggory met filmmaker Patrice Chéreau, who became an artistic mentor for the actor. The two worked together on numerous theater and film productions including La reine Margot (1994), Ceux qui m’aiment prendront le train (1998) and Gabrielle (2005). In 2007, Greggory played the impresario Louis Barrier in La Vie en rose, a film biography of legendary chanson singer Edith Piaf. This performance garnered him his third César nomination. His recent filmography includes Double Lives directed by Olivier Assayas, Ni Dieux, ni maîtres by Eric Cherrière, L’heure de la sortie by Sébastien Marnier, Lost in Alro Setar by Deng XiaoXi, and 9 Fingers by F.J. Ossang.
About PaTRICE CHEREAU
Patrice Chéreau (November 1944 – October 2013) was a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor and producer. In France he is best known for his work for the theatre, internationally for his films La Reine Margot and Intimacy, and for his staging of the Jahrhundertring, the centenary Ring Cycle at the Bayreuth Festival in 1976. Winner of almost twenty movie awards, including the Cannes Jury Prize and the Golden Berlin Bear, Chéreau served as president of the jury at the 2003 Cannes festival.
From 1966, he was artistic director of the Public-Theatre in the Parisian suburb of Sartrouville, where in his team were stage designer Richard Peduzzi, costume designer Jacques Schmidt and lighting designer André Diot, with whom he collaborated in many later productions. From 1982, he was director of "his own stage" at the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers at Nanterre where he staged plays by Jean Racine, Marivaux and Shakespeare as well as works by Jean Genet, Heiner Müller and Bernard-Marie Koltès.
He accepted selected opera productions, such as: the first performance of the three-act version of Alban Berg's Lulu, completed by Friedrich Cerha, at the Paris Opera in 1979; Berg's Wozzeck at the Staatsoper Berlin in 1994; Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at La Scala in 2007; Janáček's From the House of the Dead, shown at several festivals and the Metropolitan Opera; and, as his last staging, Elektra by Richard Strauss, first performed at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July 2013. He was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in 2008.
Director
La Chair de l'orchidée (1975)
Judith Therpauve (1978)
L'Homme blessé (1983)
Hôtel de France (1986)
Contre l'oubli (1991)
Dans la solitude des champs de coton (1996, TV version)
Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (1998)
Intimacy (2001)
His Brother (2003)
Gabrielle (2005)
Persécution (2009)
Actor
Danton (1982) by Andrzej Wajda – Camille Desmoulins
Adieu Bonaparte (1985) by Youssef Chahine, as Napoléon Bonaparte
The Last of the Mohicans (1992) by Michael Mann, as General Montcalm
Bête de scène (1994, short) by Bernard Nissille – Le metteur en scène
Dans la solitude des champs de coton (1996, TV version) – Le dealer
About FIAF
FIAF’s mission is to create and offer New Yorkers innovative and unique programs in education and the arts that explore the evolving diversity and richness of French cultures. We seek to generate new ideas and promote cross-cultural dialogue through partnerships and new platforms of expression.
Founded at the turn of 20th century, the French Institute and the Alliance Française de New York operated as two separate organizations, the first promoting French arts, the second teaching French. In 1971 they merged to form what has become one of the largest and most respected centers of French-American activities in the U.S: the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF).
FIAF offers unique access to French language and culture at our beautiful Beaux Arts building in Manhattan as well as at our satellites in Brooklyn and in Montclair, New Jersey.
FIAF is a private, American 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization incorporated in the state of New York and is not an agency of the French government.
Venue
FIAF Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022
