For its next season, the Comédie de Valence has chosen the theme of justice as its central theme.
With the presence of a scale on the first cover page of the programming booklet, the Comédie de Valence sets the tone for next season. “Justice will be the common thread of the year”announces Marc Lainé, director of the Drôme Ardèche national drama center.
After a season where around 30,000 spectators attended, the Comédie de Valence hopes to attract just as many this year.
New creations to see
Among the new creations to discover from September, there will be Eden by Alice Zeniter. Co-produced by the Comédie de Valence, the author tackles the issue head on by transposing Martin Eden, Jack London’s hero, a sailor turned writer, into the skin of a laundress of our time. Between the crushing of bodies, contempt, racism and literary brilliance, Edene paints the picture of a society that continues to die from its inequalities. The public will also find the new creation by Penda Diouf and Silvia Costa entitled Sisters, our forests also have thorns. The plot: when the youngest, from a family composed of a mother and her two daughters, decides to take flight, the bonds that unite the two sisters are shaken, and their memories with them. “It will be a traveling comedy that will address the sisterhood between a mother and her daughter”, specifies Marc Lainé. The continuation of the fantasy trilogy In your hands will also be revealed. Co-written by the director, the third part will be presented in the form of an immersive exhibition. “The public will wander through six pavilion microphones and equipped with audio headphones. The central theme will focus on possession. The aim will be to carry out the investigation and decode the message left by the strange artist before his suicide. Between fictional doubles and creative dualities, the key to this witty exhibition-show is In your hands!”says Marc Lainé enthusiastically.
Classics revisited
As for classical pieces, spectators will be able to attend a revisit of the famous piece by Molière, the Misanthrope by Simon Delétang. A comedy of manners where cruel satire is a combat sport. By adapting Molière’s famous play, the director sheds new light on the issues of domination hidden there. William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, will also be broadcast on video. Based on this premise, Peruvian director Chela De Ferrari adapts the play by offering the roles to people with Down syndrome. “A hair-raising piece that invites you to put yourself in the other’s place”, adds the director. Rivalry and love, two strong themes will be addressed in The Carpathian Castle. A very ambitious project imagined by Émilie Capliez which is based on the gothic novel by Jules Verne. “It will be a musical theatre show in collaboration with jazz trumpeter and composer, Airelle Besson. Around a mysterious haunted house, the characters are confronted with a unique sensory and emotional experience, where science meets fiction.”underlines Marc Lainé.
Meet at the faceted course
This year, the multi-faceted course will address the central theme of the year, entitled “justice under examination, fictional and speculative representations of the judicial system”. Around three shows (Behind closed doors, Article 353 of the penal code et Leviathan), a series of artistic proposals, meetings and debates will be structured to try, with the participation of the spectators, to put this eminently complex theme of justice into perspective. Halfway through this series of performances, a center of thought with a thinker specializing in the theme will be organized to provide philosophical insight into the questions raised by the journey. Finally, Tünde Deak, associate playwright, will offer to make a small group of voluntary audiences experience a complete journey through the Journey, as she does every season from now on. On the closing night, La Comédie will become an agora so that everyone can share their experience as a spectator and how it may have changed and perhaps enriched their point of view on this essential theme of our time.
