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Zazou
Performances in Szeged: August 13-14, 2004
A French comic piece with music based on the Parisian chansons of the 1940’s
Opening Night: Paris, November 14, 2003
Written and directed by: Jérôme Savary
Musical director: Gérard Daguerre
Costume Designer: Michel Dussarrat
Lighting Designer: Alain Poisson
Sounds: Olivier « Aldo » Pedron
Choreographer: Jean Moussy
Master of Ceremony: Laurence Roussarie
Dramaturgy: Léonidas Strapatsakis
Musical Assistant: Olivier Podesta
Cast:
Zazou: Nina Savary
Jean: Alexandre Bonstein
Raymond: Jérôme Savary
Simone: Mona Heftre
Boris: Hervé Pauchon
Le G.I.: Allen Hoïst
Romuald: Antonin Maurel
Petit-Louis: Laurent Delvert
L’oncle Léon: François Borysse
Astrid: Cécile Haas
Zazie: Alexandra Sarramona
Pam-Pam kislánya: Caroline Cottier
Dagi Bernard: Jean-Luc Geoffroy
Dancers:
Michel Casajus, Jérémie Champagne, Leslie Dzierla, Sarah Filc, Serge Le Borgne, Amélie Munier
Orchestra:
Gérard Daguerre (piano), Christian Orante (drums), Bernard Teissier (bass), Didier Sutton (bass), Antoine Russo (1. trumpet), Michel Bos (2. trumpet), Gérard Niobey (guitar), Michael Joussein (1. trombone), Jean-Luc Pagni (2. trombone, banjo, flute), Stéphane Chausse (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Pierre Blanchard (violin), Allen Hoïst (alt saxophone)
About the Performance:
Zazou is about the Generation which became ‘zazou’ during the German occupation, and whose members, after the liberation, changed from loose jackets, umbrellas and buckled collars to black and red checked shirts, cotton pants and sneakers, following the latest Saint-Germain-des-Prés trends. This is how all those conspicuous characters were referred to. Only a colorful jacket or slightly longer hair was enough to call somebody a ‘Zazou.’ However, the original meaning of the word faded out in the course of the years, and it hardly ever was used again.
Those, who were born after World War I, were still very young when the next apocalypse hit the country. Since they were too young to vote or to fight, their participation was very limited. This was the sad heritage the zazous faced in the early years of their lives. As the adults’ world sank deeper and deeper and became more and more ignorant (at least for the majority the majority), the zazous were trying to escape this fate.
Similarly to the hippies, who escaped to a kind of transitional Nirvana to protest against the war in Vietnam, the zazous also rejected the grey, alienated world – by wearing colorful clothes, dressing like clowns and listening to American swing. This music is just as rhythmical as the military marches; however, while the rhythm of the Swing invites us to dance, the monotonously pounding boots demolish people. The love story, which takes place in 1943, evokes the rich musical and literary heritage of an exciting era, a legendary location, and the colorful phenomenon of the young generation of zazous.
* Zazous: those young people, who dressed conspicuously and admired Jazz during World War II and the years after.
