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The International Ibsen Award to Ariane Mnouchkine

The International Ibsen Award for 2009 is given to the French stage director Ariane Mnouchkine. She founded the Parisian avant-garde stage ensemble Théâtre du Soleil in 1964. Her theatrical art has since then fascinated audiences in France and theatre-lovers throughout the world, and for many years the Théâtre de Soleil would continue to be the touchstone of a new form of collective creation. The jury points out that everyone who has seen one of Ariane Mnouchkine’s productions "leaves with the feeling of having been part of a tale of enchantment".

Ariane Mnouchkine was born on 3 March 1939 in Boulogne-sur-Seine in France. While studying at the Sorbonne, she set up her own theatre ensemble, L’Atelier Théâtral des Etudiants de Paris, which became the Théâtre du Soleil in 1964. In 1970 the ensemble made a home for itself at the Cartoucherie in the Vincennes area of eastern Paris, a derelict site, which was gradually transformed by the Théâtre du Soleil to a centre of excellence for French theatre, away from the institutions and the regular circuit. Mnouchkine has directed Ancient Greek tragedies, plays by Shakespeare, Molière, Arnold Wesker and Hélène Cixous, often inspired by Asian theatre traditions such as Noh, Kabuki, Kathakali and Balinese dance.

The Ibsen Award jury’s reason:

       Everyone who has seen one of Ariane Mnouchkine’s productions at the Théâtre du Soleil in Paris leaves with the feeling of having been part of a tale of enchantment. A tale that is larger than life but at the same time reveals life. A fantastic journey that throws fresh light on history and contemporary society, that enriches thought and feeling and in dramatic language inspires an apparently paradoxical faith in the future.
       It is said that theatre originated in ritual. If so, Ariane Mnouchkine’s theatre is proof that the sources of ritual have not dried up. She gathers people around her in order to tell them stories of the great crises of civilisation, of long-ago battles and the persecution and desperation of refugees in our own time. Yet out of these tales of crisis and tragedy grows a strong, many would say utopian, community of experience between actors and audience.
      Ariane Mnouchkine and her fellow actors at the Théâtre du Soleil give us back what our seemingly hopeless world has taken from us: courage, compassion and joy.

See the Ibsen Award’s website for more information.

Ariane Mnouchkine and Théâtre du Soleil. Photo: (c) Michele Laurent