"Welfare" de Julie Deliquet - Extracts

“I like to watch people, I like to think about everything I see:” These words by film-maker Frederick Wiseman’s are at the heart of this adaptation of Welfare (1973) by Julie Deliquet. A unique day in the life of the homeless, stateless, workers, single mothers and other destitute people who file into the makeshift welfare centre set up in the Cour d’honneur. For the duration of the performance, the Palais des papes becomes a place of hospitality struggling to take on a human face. This is the territory inhabited by the characters of this adaptation by the current director of the Centre dramatique national de Saint-Denis, whose theatre ceaselessly tries to capture life within the human comedy. Fifteen everyday heroes whose stories intertwine to show in stark relief the dysfunctions of our society. Characters who invite us to follow them and to step through the fourth wall the way one must see through a fantasy to find reality again.