Jean Lambert wild

Early life

In 1979, his father, who was a livestock farmer, created the farming cooperative Sica Révia. In 2012, the cooperative was composed of 323 livestock farmers. As a child, Jean Lambert-wild experienced the creation of this cooperative as an initiatory event, which mythology continues to influence several of his projects. At the time, all he dreamed of was “the sea, Conrad and pirates”. After several extravagant attempts to escape the island during his adolescence, he eventually moved to mainland France in 1990. He settled in Lyon and started studying for a BA in Philosophy at Lyon III University. It is there that André Arcellaschi, his Latin lecturer, incited him to direct plays by Plautus, Seneca the Younger and Gombrowicz. He considered joining the Merchant Navy, but shortly before saw a production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters by German director Matthias Langhoff. This production had a strong impact on Lambert-wild, who realised that theatre was the medium that would give him the freedom he had been looking for.

Artistic life until 2006

Lambert-wild learned his craft assisting several different theatre directors. First, Michel Dubois, who, having found an interest in Lambert-wild’s writings, invited him to work at La Comédie de Caen. From the role of apprentice, he moved on to become assistant director, thus progressively acquiring the basic tenets of his theatrical vocabulary. He then became the assistant of Jean-Yves Lazennec, Philippe Goyard and more prominently Matthias Langhoff, whom he assisted for several years.

In 1990, he wrote and directed Grande Lessive de Printemps (Great Spring Clean), which premiered at Espace 44 in Lyon. This was the beginning of his Hypogeum, a complex body of work that Lambert-wild constructs over the course of his lifetime.

The Hypogeum is composed of three Confessions, three Threnodies, three Epics, two Exclusions, one Dithyramb and 326 “Calentures”.

Over the years, Lambert-wild has created a fantasised autobiography that nurtures his work for the stage. This is recurrently present in the Ecmnesia and the Calentures.

The Ecmnesia is composed of the Confessions, the Threnodies and the Epics of the Hypogeum, along with other large-scale projects that aren’t included in the Hypogeum.

The Calentures are shorter performances, ranging from 15 to 45 minutes in length. They are created for specific occasions and are often site-specific (for festivals, in contemporary art centres, outdoors, in a public swimming-pool…). These performances usually question the notion of space in theatre. Both illusion and magic are preponderant in the Calentures. Jean Lambert-wild sees the Calentures as bouts of poetic fury, farcical at times, and at times tragic, that his striped pyjamas-wearing clown character experiences.

To this day, twenty Calentures (see List of Calentures), 2 Confessions (Grande Lessive de Printemps (Great Spring Clean) in 1990 and Crise de nerfs – Parlez-moi d’amour (Fits of Hysterics – Tell Me About Love) in 2003), 2 Threnodies (Mue Sloughing) in 2005 and La Mort d’Adam (Death of Adam) in 2010, and 1 Epic (Splendeur et Lassitude du Capitaine Marion Déperrier (Splendour and Lassitude of Captain Marion Deperrier) in 1999) have been realised.

In 1997, he met Henri Taquet, then director of Le Granit – Scène Nationale de Belfort. This encounter gave Lambert-wild a chance to direct his first professional theatre productions. He moved to Belfort, and found this new environment conclusive to his artistic development. The same year, he entered into a partnership with his wife Catherine Lefeuvre, with whom he has two children, composer Jean-Luc Therminarias, lighting designer Renaud Lagier, sound technician Christophe Farion, scenographer Thierry Varenne, and production manager and lighting designer Franck Besson. Together, they formed the Coopérative 326. This was the first attempt in France to join together artists and technical professionals into a partnership based on cooperation, solidarity and the pooling of resources. What emerged was a participative and united network of artists, technicians, academics and entrepreneurs. Based in Belfort, La Coopérative 326 was met with great success, and its reputation spread to the rest of France. The shows authored by the Coopérative 326 were performed at prestigious institutions such as Théâtre de la Colline, Théâtre de l'Odéon, à la MC93 Bobigny or Festival d'Avignon.

Between 1997 and 2006, the Coopérative 326 provided an opportunity for Lambert-wild to develop his work as a writer, especially through his collaboration with François Berreur, director of publishing company Les Solitaires Intempestifs. Together, they started publishing several of Lambert-wild’s texts. In addition, his long association with Le Granit – Scène Nationale de Belfort, allowed him to develop a strong relationship with local audiences. This furthered his taste for theatre that is accessible and popular, challenging and groundbreaking. His theatrical experiments, supported by Le Granit, were well received by audiences who became loyal to his work. He explored different performance formats (large and small-scale, performances devised for private homes, Calentures etc.…) whilst also staging his own writing or the work of authors he admires, such as Pasolini or Kafka… During this period, he led several workshops, thus acquiring a solid experience as a facilitator of non-professional theatre. With composer Jean-Luc Therminarias, he created the label 326 Music and released several albums (see Discography). Being a part of Coopérative 326 also meant his theatre work could be shared and opened up to collaborators: “the theatre he believes in is, in essence, a practice that is multi “medium”. Theatre is where the codes of every artistic discipline can be expressed, where these codes create meaning. This is why, for each project he initiates, Lambert-wild puts together a phalanstery of collaborators, placing at the heart of his practice the combination of artistic, technical, scientific and academic competences, with an aim to explore new perspectives for theatre-making and writing.”

New responsibilities

In 2007, he was appointed director of Comédie de Caen – Centre Dramatique National de Normandie by the French Ministry of Culture, a role he retained until 31 December 2014.

The Comédie de Caen’s mission involves enabling the creation and production of new work, and several of the shows it produces go on to tour nationally and internationally. As part of its mission, the institution also supports independent French and foreign theatre companies. The location of the Comédie de Caen, in the Normandy region, allowed Lambert-wild to further his efforts in developing non-Parisian audiences, in an attempt to make culture more accessible.

Since 1 January 2015, he is the director of Théâtre de l’Union, Centre Dramatique National du Limousin and of L’Académie, École Nationale Supérieure de Théâtre du Limousin, appointed by the French Ministry of Culture.

Characteristics of Lambert-wild’s work

Lambert-wild uses the work of classic and contemporary authors to question contemporary theatrical creation. In each case, performers are central to these projects, and their function is to interrogate all aspects of the modernity that currently makes up performative practices. Lambert-wild often collaborates with artists who work in other disciplines: he explores the language of graphic novels with illustrator and multi-media artist Stéphane Blanquet, contemporary dance with choreographer Carolyn Carlson, contemporary art with visual artist Alexander Ponomarev, circus with the juggler Jérôme Thomas, cinema with film-maker François Royet, illusion with magicians Thierry Collet and Marc-Antoine Coucke and new media with computer engineer Emmanuel Maâ Berriet.

International collaborations

His Creole origins and his numerous trips to Europe, Africa, North and South America and Asia are at the heart of several of his projects (whether through residencies, work in progress showings, performances in festivals and theatres in Norway, Hungary, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the USA, Canada, Brasil, South Korea, Japan, China…).

Lambert-wild also regularly collaborates with international artists such as the artist Silke Mansholt (Germany), performer Jeremiah McDonald (USA), singer David Moss (USA), actor Jacqueline Humbert (USA), dancer and choreographer Juha Marsalo (Finland), choreographer Carolyn Carlson (USA/Finland), Russian dancers Elena and Olga Budaeva, actor Keita Mishima (Japan), theatre director Lorenzo Malaguerra (Switzerland).

He has developed a strong and lasting relationship with the African continent, working regularly with Burkinabe actor Odile Sankara (together they created nomadic performances that toured in France and in ten different African countries), and supporting African artists such as Ivorian actor and theatre director Fargass Assandé or Michel Bohiri.

Since 2012, he has been commissioned to write or direct work for the permanent companies of several National Theatres around the globe. He created L’Armoire du diable (The Devil’s Wardrobe) (2013) for the National Theatre of Hungary, in Budapest, and Splendeur et lassitude du Capitaine Iwatami Izumi (2013) (Splendour and Lassitude of Captain Iwatami Izumi), an adaptation of his play Splendeur et Lassitude du Capitaine Marion Déperrier (Splendour and Lassitude of Captain Marion Deperrier) for the Shizuoka Performing Art Center (SPAC) in Shizuoka, Japan.

Teaching and legacy

For Jean Lambert-wild, training and the act of handing over knowledge enable a collective engagement towards a common future. His taste for pedagogy and actor training leads him to regularly teach as a guest lecturer in regional Conservatoires in France. He is also a visiting lecturer at universities and arts schools in France and abroad (Sorbonne – Paris IV; UTC Université de Technologie de Compiègne; UTBM of Belfort-Montbéliard, the ENSATT – École Nationale des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre, Lyon; in the Arts Department of the University of Texas in Austin; CalArts University - The Center for New Performance in Los Angeles, California Institute of the Arts; Iamas University of Technology, Tokyo; the Maison des Artistes of Baguida, Togo…). In 2013, he chaired the examining board at Institut supérieur des arts de Toulouse. Jean Lambert-wild is also regularly invited to speak at talks and conferences and to contribute to academic publications. Since September 2014, he is a Visiting Lecturer at Sciences Po – Paris teaching on the theme “Fury and Carnage in Western Theatre”. Since 1 January 2015, Jean Lambert-wild is the director of the Académie de l’Union – École Nationale Supérieure Professionnelle de Théâtre du Limousin. The Académie is one of 12 national Écoles Supérieures d’Art Dramatique, higher education centres for dramatic art. Under the direction of the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (Ministry of Culture and Communication) these Écoles Supérieures deliver a higher education degree for professional actors: the Diplôme National Supérieur Professionnel de Comédien. The Académie is located at Saint-Priest-Taurion, 15 km from Limoges, in an environment that facilitates focused and intense training. The Académie cultivates an international dimension, with, among other things, partnerships and exchange programmes between the Académie and conservatoires or national theatre schools in Russia, Canada, Georgia and Japan. This international dimension will be solidified in the future by cooperation programmes developed with French-speaking countries.

Jean Lambert-wild sees the Académie de l’Union as the breeding ground for Théâtre de l’Union, but also as the future of theatrical creation and a place for future expressions of collective freedom. The training offered at the Académie is plural and demanding, focusing on acting, on different approaches for voice and movement work, on exploring multiple creative languages, on the actor’s inventive potential, and on developing principles of autonomy with the aim of enabling individual participation within a collaborative and cooperative creative process. Working closely with Théâtre de l’Union – Centre Dramatique National du Limousin, the course offered by the Académie is developed through intensive internships, participation in performances directed by external contributors, and, as soon as from the second year, the students’ own projects. This course makes the Académie a real hive of creativity. The next rounds of auditions for admission will take place in 2016 in Dijon, Orléans and Limoges.

Ecmnesia

Calentures

As a scenographer

Jean Lambert-wild did the scenography for all his works for the stage, both the Ecmnésie and the Calentures, but he also worked as a scenographer on the following projects :

As an actor

Since 1997, he has performed in each of the Calentures (see list of the Calentures), but he also play as an actor on the followings projects :

Published work

Discography

Awards and nominations