Le dernier caravanserail (Odyssees) (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Le Dernier Caravansérail (Odyssées), Part One: Le Fleuve Cruel (The Cruel River), Part Two: Origines Et Destins (Origins and Destinies) E. Teresa Choate Le Dernier Caravansérail (Odyssées), Part One: Le Fleuve Cruel (The Cruel River), Part Two: Origines Et Destins (Origins and Destinies). Directed by Ariane Mnouchkine. Théâtre du Soleil, Lincoln Center Festival, Damrosch Park, New York City. 24072005. They are desperate; they are invisible to most of us, and yet they are legion. The 2005 World Refugee Survey estimates a total of 11.5 million global refugees. These men, women, and children flee home countries filled with violence, poverty, misogyny, and religious fanaticism. They follow the light that shines, in theory, beside the golden doors of such countries as England, France, Australia, and New Zealand. When they arrive (if they survive the journey), some few find an oasis, but others face a locked door and are denied entrance. In confronting this global issue, Ariane Mnouchkine, herself the daughter of a Russian immigrant, continues to serve as the fierce theatrical moralist of France who founded the Théâtre du Soleil in 1964. In Le Dernier Caravansérail(The Last Caravan Stop), Mnouchkine makes visible the labor of refugees through the alchemy of thirty-six actors taking on 169 named characters in sixty-two scenes. The subtitle, Odyssées, echoes the epic nature of these two three-hour productions. It also ironically suggests a striking mirror image: Odysseus's struggle to return to his home juxtaposed against the refugees' struggle to escape theirs. Interviews and correspondences with refugees from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, and Russia provided the script's genesis. The company credits no playwright, but rather lists the names of forty-three adults and six children in alphabetical order as having recounted, heard, improvised, and created the script (among them Mnouchkine and her frequent collaborator, French philosopher and writer Hélène Cixous). Caravansérailrelates their stories in alternating scenes occurring in a myriad of locations, including Tehran, Moscow, Kabul, Chechnya, Serbia, London, Calais, unidentified locations in Africa and central Asia, and some notorious refugee camps in France and Australia. Dialogue and voice-overs occur in many languages, creating the Tower of Babel that Mnouchkine views as the human race. Translations are often, but not always, provided in a disturbingly beautiful script that scrolls across various locations on the curtains and set pieces. The actual words of refugees confront us during scene changes. "A man can take charge of himself, but not a woman." "The God of anger is not God, he is the devil." "Love must be hidden deep within the house. God must be hidden deep within the house." "How can a woman not work?" "The time is coming for the friends of God and the followers of Truth to live on this Earth." Le Dernier Caravansérailseems a labor of passion for the members of Mnouchkine's theatre collective (representing some twenty-five nationalities, including most of the countries depicted in the production). Their high-octane performances pay tribute to the desperate attempts of the exiles they represent. And Mnouchkine clearly expects the audience to partake in this labor as well. The stories are seldom easy to follow. Episodes from various story lines interface at a rapid rate. Some stories are related chronologically, while others occur out of chronological order. We eventually hear many stories in toto, but the company also presents incomplete fragments. Characters' experiences occasionally echo each other, and characters from one storyline sometimes cross paths with those in another. Could it be that Mnouchkine wants her audience to experience just a little of the confusion, frustration, and exhaustion that mark the lives of those 11.5 million? When Mnouchkine presented Les Atrides, she had Les Euménidesbegin at 2:00 A.M.so the audience would be sufficiently [End Page 95]exhausted and react in reptilian brain panic at the appearance of the Furies. At any rate, during the curtain call an exhausted and exhilarated audience met an exhausted and exhilarated cast with sustained applause and a well-deserved standing ovation. We applauded a profound experience aided by an extraordinary design team who...