“The Testament of Vanda”, alas, has not aged a bit

By offering “The Testament of Vanda”, a text by Jean-Pierre Siméon (2009) directed by the Cie Ribambelle, to 3 year old students^e2^nde et 1^ere of the Benoît-d'Azy Professional High School, the culture center of Fumel-Vallée du Lot shows its attachment to the open-mindedness of young people, both towards literature and the major subjects of today's world.

The text, incisive, sometimes cruel, raw but modest, always filled with poetry to enhance feelings, tells the story of Vanda, a young Kosovar woman forced to flee her country at war after experiencing the death of her love and suffering rape. . She leaves this ravaged country to be reborn elsewhere, where no one, alas, will want her; where she lives another war: that of questions that hurt like bullets, of exclusion, of marginalization, of detention camps… And in order not to lose this other war, in order not to leave her baby with memories, Vanda hangs himself in a barely mentioned final scene.

Cathy Tisné, as reciter, and Audrey Arco, in the role of Vanda, carried this text with total self-effacement, so as not to pervert it. The musician Matthieu Léonard provided, for his part, live, another interpretation of the same character. The staging is, likewise, very discreet, so as not to disturb the heartbreaking story. As a backdrop, a simple line of white pebbles leaves room for the imagination: a border, the path traveled, the pebbles that Vanda sowed to find a path? At the end of the performance, the artists took the time to chat with the students, who were visibly taken aback. No question of explaining the text to them, but a simple questioning so that everyone can find their own avenues of interpretation.

Art education workshops

The work around the show will then be just as important as its representation. With speakers from Mémoire vive 47 and the Chemin de mémoire en Nouvelle-Aquitaine, high school students will be encouraged to make connections between the atrocities of the Second World War (an exhibition on the Dachau concentration camp is presented in the CDI) and those of all the conflicts in the world.

The female body as a weapon of war, migrations or refugee camps are all subjects that should be addressed during meetings. The artistic education workshops will also take a more academic turn. Students from the four classes who saw the show will benefit from six hours of intervention by the artists. This will involve working in a field which can often disadvantage young people in their studies or their future career: oral expression.

With the artists, they will understand the techniques necessary for good expression: breathing, articulation, body position. They will be asked to say a text out loud. Finally, they will approach the technique of sound recording to produce a podcast of their work.