Printemps des Comédiens Festival; Montpellier, France

The French playwright and director Pascal Rambert has long leaned toward affectation in the name of poetry, but the text of “Mont Vérité,” a new production he created with the choreographer Rachid Ouramdane at the Printemps des Comédiens festival in Montpellier, proved so bloated and self-aggrandizing that a hefty portion of the audience decided to call it a night early. Pity the actors, all graduating students from the School of the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, who had to deliver rambling monologue after monologue before stripping naked and running laps around the play’s alfresco stage. It’s no way to start a career, but after “Mont Vérité,” they are ready for any challenge.

A.J. Goldmann