Revive from solitude and despair with this sparkling work

Olivier PY is undoubtedly one of today’s most important theatre directors, and having visited SPAC several times he has lots of fans in Shizuoka — many of whom will remember the masterful “Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Olivier PY” trilogy he brought here in 2009.
This year, he will premier a new version of his “The Girl, the Devil and the Mill” at the Open Air Theatre UDO. In this widely acclaimed work, soothing and nostalgic music and song floats through Nihondaira Wood in Shizuoka City as the play creates the atmosphere of an alluring foreign circus come to town. However, amid all this wanders a girl who lost her hands due to her father’s fatal contract with the devil, though audiences will be astonished again and again by the wondrous things the heroine experiences that slowly begin to restore her hope for her life. The simple and pure messages in this play can’t fail to move audience members of any age.

One day, a flour dealer who lives in a windmill meets a man in the woods. The stranger says, “If you promise to give me the thing now in the back of your windmill three years later, I will definitely make you rich.” The flour dealer agrees this deal and though the stranger disappears he is soon rich beyond his wildest dreams. Actually, though, it was his darling only daughter who was in the back of the windmill. Three years later, that man (who is really the devil) returns, takes away the girl’s hands and turns her loose to wander alone consumed with grief.
So, is it possible for the daughter to ever again live with hope for the future?

◎There is special front-area seating (Family Seats) for audience members with small children(age 3-12/ Limited to 2 adults per child). As this is limited to 40 seats, reservations are required in advance.
◎Performances are free for children under elementary school age, though seat reservations are required in advance.
◎Starting 30 minutes before each performance, a SPAC actor will do a story presentation in front of the venue.

Text and Directed by: Olivier PY
Original text by the GRIMM Brothers
Set and costumes: Pierre-André WEITZ
Music: Stéphane LEACH
Light: Bertrand KILLY
Assistant stage manager: Antoine RAULIN
Light manager: Jacques GRISLIN
Director of production: Julie BORDEZ

With
François MICHONNEAU as the Father, the Prince, the Child and the first skeleton
Léo MUSCAT as the Mother and the Gardener
Benjamin RITTER as the Devil, the Angel and the second skeleton
Delia SEPULCRE NATIVI as the Girl and the Princess

Production: Festival d’Avignon, Théâtre de la Ville-Paris

Supported by Institut français

SPAC Staff
Stage manager: HAYASHI Tetsuya
Stage: KAMIYA Toshiko
Lighting: KOBAYAKAWA Hiroya, ITAYA Wataru
Sound: HARADA Shinobu, AOKI Ryosuke (US), SHIMIZU Kei
Wardrobe: OOKA Mai, KAWAI Reiko
Interpreter: ANDO Hirofumi
Japanese subtitles (Translation & Operation): NISHIO Sachiko
Production: TAKABAYASHI Rie, TSUKAMOTO Hirotoshi, SATO Ryota
Volunteer: MATSUURA Yasumasa, KOMIZO Akari, KAWAMURA Natsuki

Technical manager: MURAMATSU Atsushi
Lighting manager: HIGUCHI Masayuki
Sound manager: KATO Hisanao

Supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan in the fiscal 2016