Since November 2, the Troupe du Pavé has been filling the village halls and other multipurpose rooms in which it performs its play “Le Procès de Bobigny – 1972” which takes up the highlights of the trial led in 1972 by Gisèle Halimi and which led to the decriminalization of abortion and Simone Veil’s abortion law three years later. Already 8 dates have delighted the public, and around ten are still to come, including two in the Aunis Atlantique territory: in Marans, Friday January 31, at 8:30 p.m., at the village hall, and in Saint-Jean-de -Liversay, Sunday February 23, at 5:30 p.m., in the multipurpose room.
A session is also planned for this Saturday, January 25, in Esnandes, at the village hall, at 8:30 p.m.
The story: in 1971, Marie-Claire, 16, became pregnant following a rape and decided to have an abortion, which was prohibited at the time. Her mother and a friend search for a woman who performs an abortion and are denounced, arrested, tried, and sentenced to a year in prison.
-Florence Absolu, director, confides, delighted: “The audience is of all ages. The young people who attended the play are surprised and moved by everything they discover. If the audience is predominantly female, there are also men, often younger, who come to express their support for the cause.” This feminist activist explains: “People clearly perceive the major role played by the Bobigny trial and Simone Veil’s abortion law. This is an exceptional legal moment, it was the first time that a lawyer called major witnesses and accused the law. Robert Badinter took up the idea five years later during Patrick Henri’s trial in 1977 against the death penalty. “There are surprises throughout the evening, “things” that I added to the staging. It brings a little bit of lightness,” notes the actress.
The theater troupe is civic, voluntary and committed; it donates all its profits to associations active in the fight against violence against women.
