Wednesday 15 January 2020

Theatre in a Goods Wagon


Theatre in former railway goods wagons.  Indre et Loire, France. Photographed by Susan Walter. Tour the Loire Valley with a classic car and a private guide.

About 15 years ago two professional performers created a space for live performance in the most unlikely of places. Tucked out of the way down a side road in the unremarkable village of Saint-Branchs, in three former railway goods wagons is the Théâtre de Novocordie (usually referred to as Les Wagons, or Les Trois Wagons sometimes). It is run as a not for profit organisation, and events held there range from plays, stand up comedians, open mike evenings, music of all sorts, dance, readings and lectures on subjects as diverse as the history of eating and the art of the table (includes a wine tasting in the interval -- we are in France after all...) to seasonal migrant workers in the strawberry fields of Spain -- quite simply, live performance of all sorts and anything you can imagine. In addition there are weekly workshops for actors and writers.

Theatre sign.  Indre et Loire, France. Photographed by Susan Walter. Tour the Loire Valley with a classic car and a private guide.

We've never been to a performance there, and only discovered the place last year, when there was a detour through town due to road works that took us past the wagons.

Theatre in former railway goods wagons.  Indre et Loire, France. Photographed by Susan Walter. Tour the Loire Valley with a classic car and a private guide.

Theatre in former railway goods wagons.  Indre et Loire, France. Photographed by Susan Walter. Tour the Loire Valley with a classic car and a private guide.


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3 comments:

Ricks Carson, Atlanta said...

There are such makeshift theatres in NYC, mostly abandoned buildings or railroad boxcars. There's also the great Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, a "theatre" in the Lower East Side on a vacant lot that obviously spoofs Shakespeare in the Park. The night I saw The Taming of the Shrew, a police chase ran right through the middle of the vacant block and scattered everyone! Actors and audience ducked, reconvened, and the show went on.

Susan said...

A real life police chase sounds like an exciting way to liven up a performance! So long as weapons were not involved.

Katie Zeller said...

What a great find! I'm constantly surprised by things here.... We have a circus school about 4 miles from us. I had no idea it was there - or that there even was such a school.

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