Unexpectedly delightful!

La Cantatrice chauve

La Compagnie de l'Imprévu theatre company came to Sainte Marie’s on 24^th of January last. The troop is made up of three women and three men.

In the morning, they played Antigone by Anouilh for the Secondes and the Terminales. The Premieres attended La Cantatrice chauve by Ionesco in the afternoon.

La Cantatrice chauve, written in 1950, is typical of the Theatre of the Absurd. It is about the lack of communication between people in a society where nothing makes any sense, and the nature of the human condition is basically tragic…

We were all very surprised by the eccentric style of acting but everybody enjoyed it. The actors wore bathrobes, ate whipped cream and marshmallows… It was disconcerting but also very funny!

After the play, the actors took time to answer our questions about the play itself and about their lives as artists. They are passionate about their work, and it was most interesting to listen to them.

St Patrick's Day at Sainte-Marie

What is St Patrick’s Day? It’s a religious holiday on 17^th March every year celebrating the patron saint of Ireland. It’s now an international party, particularly in the USA where there is a huge Irish community. People dress up in green and have parties in the streets, drink beer, and even go to church!

Our DNL team decided to organize a St Patrick’s Day at Sainte-Marie! The idea was to put on a pot-pourri of Irish plays, poems, dance and music in the Salle Polyvalente… Unfortunately, the day did not go as planned, for lack of rehearsals, but some of us did manage to have a good time anyway. Many teachers, plus the Headmaster and Head of the Collège, came along which was very nice of them.

The best moments were the poems and the pieces of flute music (thank you to the Music teacher!). The Irish dance did not “happen” at 1 o’clock as most of the boys chickened-out! There was a shy attempt at dancing again at tea time… It was fun even if rather short!

We made 200 muffins and managed to sell quite a few over two days. They were really delicious and we raised 50€ to buy a present for the school we will visit on our trip to Ireland (6^th to 11^th of April).

Even if not too many people took part, and it was not the success we were hoping for, at least some pupils were really motivated and full of energy... Let’s hope next year we will be better organized and there will be more enthusiasm!