Flemish playwrights and translator in debate at Avignon Festival

At the invitation of Flanders Literature, playwrights Michael Bijnens and Carly Wijs and translator Ann Vanderschueren will be appearing at Festival d’Avignon, a major international arts festival taking place from 6 to 24 July. They will be taking part in, among other events, the ‘Forum des nouvelles écritures dramatiques européennes’ (forum for contemporary European drama).

A remarkable number of new theatrical texts are seeing the light in Europe today. So many it seems fair to speak of a revival of the genre. This year’s forum in Avignon – after those in Strasbourg in 2016 and Brussels in 2017 – sets out to explore these texts by inviting ten European authors for a two-day programme of round-table discussions and debates. Excerpts read and performed by drama school students will form the basis for an exchange of ideas between students, authors and their translators, contemporary writing scholars and the public.

Flemish playwrights Michael Bijnens and Carly Wijs and translator Ann Vanderschueren will participate in this forum, which is free to attend at the Gymnase du lycée Saint-Joseph on Saturday 7 July and Sunday 8 July. They will be in conversation with Esther Gouarné, who earned her doctorate with research into Dutch-language immersive theatre and who also works as a theatre maker and translator herself. The event is produced and co-organised by the Festival d’Avignon, Théâtre National de Strasbourg, Esact Liège, RITCS Bruxelles, Université Paris Nanterre, Université Libre de Bruxelles and Maison Antoine Vitez.

The Festival d’Avignon features even more theatre from Flanders: the Couperus adaptation ‘The Things That Pass’ by Ivo van Hove and Toneelgroep Amsterdam will have its French premiere at this year’s edition.