Yesterday I spent all afternoon and evening in Lyon with a group of students on a field trip. We went to see a production of Death of a Salesman. The day was a lot of fun. We had a 2 hour Q&A session with the director at 2. She explained how she translated the play with a combination of literal translation and adopting the translation for the French culture. She talked about the simplicity of the set and props, which was really interesting. And for anyone that knows the play, there are multiple flashbacks, which were indicated simply by changing the color of the stage lights. It was nice to have this preview before seeing the actual play later that evening.
After the Q&A session, we had 3 hours to kill before we had to meet again for the actual performance. So the students were turned loose in Lyon. Another teacher took the time to show me around 2 quarters of Lyon: Presqu'isle and Vieux Lyon. Presqu'isle (Almost an Island) is called that because it's almost an island. Lyon is where two rivers, the Rhône and the Saône come together to become the Rhône and this neighborhood is on the thin strip of land between where the rivers converge. It has many restaurants and shopping areas. Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) is the old section of the city, as in Roman ruins. We just walked a little in this area, so I want to go back and do some more exploring.
The play was in the Célestins Theater, which is beautiful. I don't know any information about it, but I wish I could have gotten pictures of the inside. There wasn't really time before or after the play and I was sitting in the highest balcony, which meant that I could not get pictures of the murals on the ceilings and the detail work that lined the balconies. It was amazing! The play itself was intense. I have never seen it performed in English, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. But I really enjoyed it. It proved to be a late night, but was definitely worth it. This is the theater all lit up before we went inside.
The rest of this week should fly by! And then we have a 2 week vacation. Hopefully I will have all kinds of fun stories to share.
From Lyon with love
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