Summer festival 'Quartiers d’Eté' enlivens Paris

Paris has its "Summer Quarters" or Quartiers d'Eté, a festival of performings arts in and around the French capital until August 11. The Quartiers d’Eté shines in its eclecticism.

KZN Philharmonic Orchestra ® Val Adamson

Performances are programmed in the Palais Royal courtyard, in the parks of the city, in the Museum of Mediaeval Arts, on the banks of the Seine, amongst other venues intramuros, as well as in Pantin or Aubervilliers just outside.

This year as well as putting Korean artists in the limelight with for example, Korean opera in classical and contemporary forms and directed by Eun-Me Ah, as it's the year of South Africa in France, South African artists get a relatively rare opportunity to show what they're made of here.

They've come from Cape Town (choreographer-dancer Mamela Nyamza) or from KwaZulu-Natal (the Philharmonia), while artist-film-maker-director William Kentridge presented an his artistico-physics production called Refuse the Hour which was at the Avignon Festival in 2012.

More classically, Francois Cervantes', directed Les Clowns, which had the audience in fits of laughter with Arletti, Zig and Boudu playing clowns, playing Shakespeare's King Lear (with only three characters it was necessarily abridged).

If that's not variety enough, young Dutch performer Nick Steur offers a zen-like magic experience with his live stone-building contemplations called "Freeze!".

After the last performances in Paris this coming week, Nick Steur for one is off to the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland where you can catch him in the Fringe.

Quartiers d’Eté performances, in a variety of places in and around the city, until August 11. Visit the website for more information.