Aurélie Namur presents her new creation “Welcome elsewhere, Fragments of inspired youth” at the Jean Vilar theater. In it, Sara breaks with those around her and embraces radical environmentalist commitment. A look at young people confronted with a world they don’t want.
Kangaroos dying in the major fires affecting Australia. This is how Aurélie Namur’s latest creation begins: Welcome elsewheresubtitled Fragments of an inspired youth. This precision has its full meaning because the inspiration germinated when the author, actress and director “found herself face to face with climate protests” she tells us. “It’s already not easy being a teenager, but here I found it incredible to demonstrate to have a viable future”. She then saw these young people who were talking about the end of the world, about many subjects, but with cheerfulness. With this, she remembers a moment when Sarkozy and other political leaders found nothing better than to laugh at the proposals of Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist, figure of an entire generation. From there, the desire to work on the words of these young people who do not feel comfortable in the world as it is. “I wanted to do something with the cheerfulness they have, even though this cheerfulness is not completely mine” confides Aurélie Namur. “It’s really part of contemporary theater to think about and write fiction on themes that move at full speed and on which we don’t have much perspective”. But it’s better not to be climate skeptic.
An invisible heroine
This is how we follow the trajectory of Sara who, a year after seeing these flaming kangaroos, made the choice to run away. To measure his quest, we have no choice. The teenager will never appear. This is a radical and confident decision by Aurélie Namur which will let us imagine what this young girl can be like. It is through the story of her mother, her comrades or her loves that we will have the traces she left. “Those who stayed and loved her miss her. They miss her so much that it forces them to speak.” explains Aurélie Namur. Sara is a sort of Cassandra, a heroine whose contours we will see appear. “Someone who is missing is a fantastic tool for poeticization, because it allows us to leave realism behind” underlines the director who does not make the play a summary of ecological activism.
A participatory show
Three moments form the story of this journey as if it were a soap opera. To accompany the words, live music based on percussion. There is also an interlude which acts as a performance with young people getting on the stage, which makes Welcome elsewherea participatory play, in the vein of theater that Aurélie Namur wants to defend. “It represents all of youth, in its potential, its differences but also a form of awkwardness and fury” concludes the actress.
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