MILO RAU
LA LETTRE
/SUI-FRA/
Milo Rau's production for the first time in Estonia!
Swiss director and playwright Milo Rau's "LA LETTRE" premiered at the Avignon Festival in 2025. The production intertwines personal stories with theater history and social issues. On stage are two actors – Arne De Tremerie and Olga Mouak – who talk about their family roots, childhood and journey to theater. Their stories combine the personal and historical dimensions and become a kind of reflection on what shapes a person's life and the path of an artist.
Milo Rau plays with the idea that a young artist is defined as much by his roles as by his family history, and in this scenic reflection explores the experiences that subtly alter the course of our lives: generational conflicts, political events, love and death. Light and humorous, LA LETTRE presents itself as a manifesto for what popular theatre can be today. From the story of Joan of Arc to Chekhov’s The Seagull, the performance unfolds on multiple levels, in a constant shift between art and life. Even the dead return to the stage thanks to recorded voices.
Milo Rau's work has only been seen at the Baltoscandal Festival and in Estonia in general in 2022, when his film "The New Gospel" was scheduled.
Duration: 75 min
Language: French
Subtitles: Estonian/English
Performances:
Wed, 1.07 at 19.00 in Big Hall.
Thu, 2.07 at 15.30 in Big Hall.
Ticket sales starts 12th of March at 12.00 in Piletimaailm. Buy ticket from here.
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Milo Rau, born 1977 in Bern, is the artistic director of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna. Critics call him the "most influential" (Die Zeit), "most interesting" (De Standaard), "most controversial" (La Repubblica), "most scandalous" (New York Times) or "most ambitious" (The Guardian) artist of our time. The director and author has published over 50 plays, films, books and actions. His theatre productions have been shown at all major international festivals, including the Berlin Theatertreffen, the Festival d'Avignon, the Venice Biennale, the Vienna Festival and the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, and have been touring in over 30 countries worldwide. From 2018 to 2024 Milo Rau was Artistic Director of NTGent (Belgium).
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“With La Lettre, Milo Rau is led to a modest form, which proves to be a true little lesson in theater, as moving as it is enjoyable, intertwining reality and imagination with simplicity and mastery.”
– Fabienne Darge, Le Monde
“Rau seeks catharsis from ancient tragedy. And although this play is lighthearted and funny, it does not escape the dictum that the author has imposed on himself for years: ‘It is not enough to represent the world. You have to change it.’ It is up to us to dare to face pain. To represent it. To offer it. As Arne and Olga do before the audience. A kind of mystical gift.”
– Fabienne Pascaud, Télérama
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Director: Milo Rau
Text: Milo Rau And The Ensemble
Performance: Arne De Tremerie, Olga Mouak and the voices of Isabelle Huppert, Anne Alvaro, Jocelyne Monier and Marijke Pinoy
Dramaturgy: Giacomo Bisordi
Stage, Sound, Light, Costumes, Props: Milo Rau, Giacomo Bisordi
Costume & Props Assistant: Julie Louvain
Production: Festival D’avignon
International Touring Team
Technical direction and lights: Sylvain Faye
Sound Sören Schwedler
Assistant Director and Subtitle Operator: Giacomo Bisordi, Edward Fortes
Tourmanagement Mascha Euchner-Martinez
Co-Productions: Éclat – Centre national des arts de la rue et de l’espace public (Aurillac), Théâtre de la Manufacture – Centre dramatique national Nancy Lorraine, Théâtre Silvia Monfort (Pariis), Théâtre public de Montreuil – Centre dramatique national, Théâtre du Champ au Roy – Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national Art & Création (Guingamp), Le Canal Théâtre de Redon Agglomération – Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national, CCAS Activités sociales de l’énergie, Scène 55 – Scène conventionnée d’intérêt national Art & Création (Mougins), Théâtre Durance – Scène nationale (Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban), La Soufflerie – Scène conventionnée de Rezé
Thanks: Odeon – Theatre De L’europe (Paris), Stephane Braunschweig and The Ensemble Of The Seagull, Les Plateaux Sauvages (Paris), La Commune – Centre Dramatique National D’aubervilliers
