9th GRAND PRIX NOVA, 2021
DRAMA. Belgium/Romania - Maldoror
Name for freelancers: Lucie Robet, Cristian Fierbinteanu. Authors: Original text: Comte de Lautréamont. Radio drama: Cristian Fierbinteanu and Lucie Robet. Producers & Directors: Cristian Fierbinteanu, Lucie Robet. Sound engineer: Cristian Fierbinteanu (recording, mixing, editing) and Lucie Robet (recording). Other key staff: Alex Bala and Cristian Fierbinteanu (music), Lucie Robet (main voice), Christian Copuse (additional voice), Véronique Lhoir (additional voice)
Synopsis
The text of this drama piece is extracted from a book written by Isidore Lucien Ducasse, better known under the pseudonym of Comte de Lautréamont. The book, Les Chants de Maldoror, was published in 1874, after the death of its author at the young age of 24. It was ignored for a long time before being held as a chef-d'oeuvre by the Surrealist movement. Today, the appeal of its poetry goes beyond borders. Our Franco-Romanian-Belgian team first met during The Week of Sound in Brussels in January 2019. We all agreed that Canto II / Stanza 7 (L'Hermaphrodite) was a powerful part of the book, which holds relevance in today's socio-political climate. Thus, we have decided to revisit it as radio drama, with some ars acustica accents, while keeping the original text. There is no single meaning at work in Maldoror: there are continuous metamorphoses, incessant reversals and polyvocality, as well as confusion between narrator and character.
We have translated this whirlwind sonically by using several narrating voices (masculine/feminine/neutral, whispers/shouts, sober/delirious tone). We move from one landscape to another as well as from one atmosphere to another: urban/bucolic, loud/quiet, musical/silent… Notwithstanding this sonic treatment, we have not altered the original text in French.
English text (click)
