“Libé” guides you through the pieces or dance shows to see, in Paris or in the regions. Also see: “In your interior” by Julia Perazzini and “The Seagull” by Chekhov edited by Stéphane Braunschweig.
To help our readers navigate the abundant cultural offerings, the journalists from Libé’s Culture department clear the ground and give you the essentials of what they liked in the news of film releases, albums, plays and shows, series and books. And every Saturday, our Top 10 of the week, all disciplines combined. Find our selections.
Theater
“Portrait of the Artist After His Death” by Davide Carnevali
Alone on stage, Marcial Di Fonzo Bo reveals his identity which has become a text for the play Portrait of the artist after his death by Davide Carnevali. The rest plays out in a Borges-style story, a look back at the years of dictatorship in Argentina, the kidnappings, the missingwith this idea that theater can lead the investigation, make the ghosts speak, at least give them an identity.
At the Théâtre de la Bastille (75 011), from November 25 to 27. Then on tour to Montluçon, Liège, Angers.
“Edène” by Alice Zeniter
Inspired by the novel by Jack London, the director’s highly anticipated play emphasizes didacticism despite the formidable Camille Léon-Fucien in the title role of a laundress author and a relevant text about a class defector. On tour until May.
Eden by Alice Zeniter and directed by herself, from November 27 to December 1 at the Criée in Marseille, from December 4 to 6 in Nantes, from December 10 to 13 in Lyon, from January 15 to 26 at TPM in Montreuil , toured until May.
“4.48 Psychosis” by Sarah Kane directed by Florent Siaud
Sophie Cadieux radiates in the intense monologue written by the British woman before her suicide in 1999. The direction by Quebecer Florent Siaud and the sumptuous interpretation emphasize proximity rather than the fierce and impassable isolation produced by depression.
At the Paris-Villette theater from November 27 to December 7.
“The next time you bite the dust”, according to Panayotis Pascot
At the Petit Saint-Martin theater in Paris, the adaptation of the comedian’s sagacious best-seller, directed by his brother, draws its strength from a relaxed Vassili Schneider. The lively phrasing and speaking of the author in the middle of the manipulation of his adolescent sutures in the book is seen put on like a glove by the actor who forcefully strings together the thoughts out loud, settling scores with the father.
At the Petit Saint-Martin theater (75 010) until March 8.
“In your interior” by Julia Perazzini
Julia Perazzini explores the identity of an absent and paradoxical grandfather in a room with drawers. Did theater begin in documentary mode? It continues as a superbly visual installation and develops into a one-woman show – in the terrifying tradition of Zouc – with a mind-blowing gallery of characters.
From January 22 to 25, 2025, Théâtre Saint-Gervais, Geneva (CH) and major tour under construction.
“The Seagull” by Chekhov, directed by Stéphane Braunschweig
By choosing to anchor Chekhov’s play in an indefinite contemporary, the director reveals the prophetic turn of this text written in 1895: it is the sixth extinction that the young Konstantin, a playwright doomed to failure, speaks to us about, in front of his elders who snub him and are ironic. In this beautiful desolate setting, it is no longer the end of a society but the end of a world that Anton Chekhov describes.
The Seagull by Anton Tchekhov (translation André Markowicz and Françoise Morvan), directed by Stéphane Braunschweig. Until December 22 at the Odéon (75 006).
“BIRD” by Anna Nozière
It’s a children’s show that speaks with finesse and humor about death, the dead and the way in which most of us ignore them. Mustapha’s father is dead. With all the other children at school who have lost a loved one, or a beloved animal, Mustapha is going to set up a big brotherhood at school – “If you love your dead, come with us” – and organize a big party in the cemetery, with surimi and Oreos, graffiti the walls (“Police everywhere, our dead nowhere”) and leave, at night, to find those who are no longer there. Under the forbidden gaze of adults.
BIRD by Anna Nozière, from November 28 to 30 at the Fil de l’eau theater in Pantin, December 10 and 11 at the Jean-Vilar theater in Vitry sur Seine, then in 2025 in Verdun, Angers, Nanterre, Sartrouville, Lorient, Marseille…
“On the other shore” after Chekhov, by Cyril Teste
Both a great evening on stage and a film performance, the liberated adaptation of Platonov by Chekhov reveals the banally monstrous relationships of the characters.
On the other bank, based on “Platonov” by Chekhov, directed by Cyril Teste, in December in Amiens, Mans, Roubaix…
“The English Lover” by Marguerite Duras with Sandrine Bonnaire
The actress returns to the theater in a play by Marguerite Duras based on a news story where she wonderfully embodies a woman who searches with her interrogator for the motives of an assassination she committed.
The English Lover by Marguerite Duras, directed by Jacques Osinski at the Théâtre de l’Atelier (75 018) until December 31, then on tour.
“The Suicide” by Stéphane Varupenne
Directed by Stéphane Varupenne, Nicolaï Erdman’s play, censored in 1930, paints the portrait of a Stalinist society which had every reason to suppress itself. Too caricatured.
The Suicide, directed by Stéphane Varupenne, at the Comédie-Française until February 2.
“Square root of the verb to be” by Wajdi Mouawad
Wajdi Mouawad reprises a play already performed at the Hill. Through five characters who become one, the director tells the fate of a Lebanese family devastated by the explosion of August 4, 2020 in Beirut. The brilliance of the staging and the abundance of trajectories make us forget some of the heaviness of the writing.
Square root of the verb to be, text and direction by Wajdi Mouawad, at the Théâtre de la Colline (75 020) until December 22.
“Lacrima” by Caroline Guiela Nguyen
Between Paris, Mumbai and Alençon, the director retraces the making of a princess’s wedding dress. His show is a feat, an ample, popular choral story of rare precision.
Tear by Caroline Guiela Nguyen, from December 7 to 11, at the Scène nationale de Douai on December 18 and 19, at the Odéon in Paris from Jan. 7 to Feb. 6. 2025…
Danse
“Routade” by Olivia Grandville
Seven dancers deconstruct the assignments linked to their gender. An applied choreography which poorly masks a lack of originality on a theme that has been discussed many times.
Stampede by Olivia Grandville, Chaillot on November 30 at the Liberté theater in Toulon, on January 18 at the Equinoxe in Châteauroux.
Alone on stage
“The End of the Beginning” by Solal Bouloudnine
In his childhood bedroom recreated on stage, Solal Bouloudnine plunges back, through an exciting gallery of characters, into his 90s haunted by the death of Michel Berger.
The End of the Beginning by Solal Bouloudnine at the Lepic theater (75 018) every Monday, Tuesday at 9 p.m., and Sundays at 7:30 p.m. Until January 5.
Musical
“La Haine” by Mathieu Kassovitz and Serge Denoncourt
Transposed into the France of Bardella and “Justice for Adama” with an ultra-unifying ambition, carried live by young rappers and breakers, the work of Mathieu Kassovitz sets the room ablaze again, thirty years after its cinema release. very mixed musical Seine.
