A parallel universe

It was the last show of the season for the Centre Culturel this evening. I hardly know where to start to describe it.

A couple of years ago, a street artist known as Spi-K-Tri somehow managed to acquire the enormous and half-ruined cave coopérative in Ferrals. I think he has some rich backers. Since then, he's made the buildings safe and filled the 14,000 m2 of space with his art, all made of rubbish. 

Having seen photos of his art, up till now we have baulked at paying the steep 20-euro entrance fee. But this evening the show was held here, and the 20 euro ticket included a tour of the buildings, so that seemed like a better deal. It was open to ticket holders from 4 pm -- we got there about 7, and had a quick tour of the first of the three buildings. I can't say I wanted to linger over any of the art ... and when we got up to the third floor directly under the roof, it was so hot that we fled back down to the yard, where there were two food trucks and a bar, to get a cold beer. And a hamburger from the food truck before it got busy.

By the time we'd drunk our beers it was after 8, and the galleries had closed so we never got to see buildings 2 and 3. Oh well. I've made a small album of what we did see in case it's to your taste. Extra: just try to imagine 14,000 m2 of this. Even if you don't like  the actual works, his creativity and imagination are very impressive.

We'd bumped into L and M with a couple of their friends, so we sat with them for a glass of wine till the show started. It was outdoors, thankfully, given it was still 26C at 9 pm, with not a breath of wind. Seating arrangements were not ideal -- there were some raked benches for the lucky first few, but the rest of us had to sit on planks on the ground. I think they should have sorted the audience by age -- we oldies at ground level were not comfortable! There was much groaning as we staggered to our feet at the interval. For the second act, many of us grabbed chairs from the bar.

The show though ... it was brilliant! Véro 1ère, Reine d'Angleterre, like the art, is pretty much impossible to describe. It was completely wacky, set up as a retro amateur dramatics performance with the workings very visible. The tone was set in the first scene when a woman on stage cradled a plastic baby while one of the other actors stood next to the stage making baby-screaming noises. Later a heart monitor had its blips played by an actor playing a Melodica (one of those plastic flutes with piano keys) and straining to see the illuminated line so he could synchronise with it. Wigs and costumes were dragged off on the way to the changing caravan, arguments erupted inside, stagehands forgot they were supposed to bring the curtain down. 

After many melodramatic and hilarious scenes, it culminated in Queen Elizabeth (in a bright pink suit and carrying a corgi) marrying the heroine and abdicating in her favour, immediately before new queen Véro discovers she is facing a revolution. You had to be there I guess. I can't find any videos of it, but it was very funny. The whole evening was a great season finale.