Twenty not-to-be-missed shows in Paris and beyond this December

December is rich in choices in all areas of the performing arts in Paris and futher afield. There’s a stripped-down Shakespeare in Lyon, an almost complete The Satin Slipper in Paris, a dizzying Polyphemus in Versailles, the glorious voguing/waacking/hip hopping of dancer Amala Dianor and an abundance of children’s events in Le Havre. It’s enough to keep the long evenings lit up until Christmas.

THEATER

Haribo KimchiJaha Koo’s theatrical cuisine

South Korean artist Jaha Koo had already made a name for himself in 2019 with his show Cuckooin which he made rice cookers, the household appliance found in every Southeast Asian kitchen, the star. With his new creation, he transforms the theater into a pojangmachaa typical South Korean street food stall and haunt for night owls of all kinds. The rice cooker will once again feature prominently in this culinary voyage, where food serves as a vehicle for reflection on cultural assimilation, symbolized by the clash between Haribo sweets and kimchia traditional method of fermenting vegetables. These links between food and identity are also an opportunity for Koo to pursue his research into hybrid forms combining cuisine, documentary writing, video, music and robotics. F. Yes.

Nicole Garcia in Royan by Marie NDiaye

Royanwhich premiered at the Avignon Festival in 2021 and was revived at the Théâtre La Commune in Aubervilliers, is a summit meeting between writer Marie NDiaye and actress Nicole Garcia. The supple, feline waves of Ndiaye’s writing capture the buried echoes of a woman’s life, a French teacher who thought she was protecting herself from the “acrid effluvia of misfortune,” but whose tragedy rises to the surface when one of her pupils commits suicide. Garcia plays her magnificently, with the toughness of a wounded wild beast, this woman on the brink. Her rough, savage performance, with its brittle edges, has no equal. F. Yes.

Gwenaël Morin’s stripped-down The Dream

For over 20 years now, Gwenaël Morin has been stripping theatrical art of its trappings to give it a Dionysian urgency, intensity and dimension. He proves it once again with The Dream (“The Dream”) freely adapted from Shakespeare’s play, which delighted the nights of Avignon during the 2023 festival. By stripping A Midsummer Night’s Dream of its enchantment, playing it with almost nothing and relying entirely on the acting of four excellent actors – Virginie Colemyn, Julian Eggerickx, Barbara Jung and Grégoire Monsaingeon – the director recovers the full acuity of this comedy about the madness of amorous desire. As the great Shakespeare said, “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.” F. Yes.

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