After being away from his native town for years and years, Louis suddenly decides to go back home to his family and tell them "face to face" about his impending death. This return to his roots makes Louis take a searching look at himself, who he really is after all these years of being elsewhere and forging his own different destiny. So Louis decides to invite onto the stage all those people who have featured during his life, whether briefly or in the long term, whether they are dead or alive, from his own blood family or from the family he has invented for himself, the "other family". It's a crazy idea, and soon he realises that it is impossible. How can you remember everyone ? How can you go over an entire life ? How can you name what it is that ties us to others, in spite of everything, in spite of oneself ? And is it not, without admitting it, yet another derisory trick we play to reassure ourselves when faced with the inevitable ? This project was supposed to be a reworking, on a larger scale and in a fragmented way, of Juste la fin du monde (Only the End of the World - 1990), but Le Pays Lointain (The Distant Country - 1995) turned into a magnificent impossible theatrical dream, another way of saying a farewell to the world, a final attempt, ironic and proud, happy and desperate, to seize the very essence of earthly existence, a last smile before the "crash" of the curtain fall !
Distribution
stage direction François Rancillac
Patrick Azam : Antoine
Corinne Darmon : Catherine
Yann de Graval : Longue Date
Marc Ernotte : Louis
Yves Graffey : Le Père, mort déjà
Christine Guênon : Suzanne
Gaël Lescot : Un Garçon, tous les garçons
Adama Niane : Le Guerrier, tous les guerriers
Laurent Prévot : L'Amant, mort dejà
Frédérique Ruchaud : La Mère
Bénédicte Wenders : Hélène
in collaboration with : Frédéric Révérend
and Raymond Sarti, Sabine Siegwalt, Marie-Christine Soma
stage design : Raymond Sarti
costumes : Sabine Siegwalt
lighting : Marie-Christine Soma
sound : Michel Maurer
choreography : Thierry Thieû Niang
Script commissioned by : the Théâtre national de bretagne (1995)
Published by : Les Solitaires Intempestifs, 1999
Production
Coproduction : Théâtre du Binôme (subventionné par la DRAC Ile-de-France et la Ville de Paris), Le Fanal-scène nationale de Saint-Nazaire, Le Théâtre de Cavaillon-scène nationale, Centre culturel André Malraux-scène nationale de Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy
Avec : l'aide à la production de Thécif (Théâtre et Cinéma en Ile-de-France), l'aide à la création d'œuvres dramatiques du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication-DMDTS
le concours de : l'Adami
le soutien du : Théâtre de Mâcon-scène nationale et du Théâtre du Campagnol-centre dramatique national