Asservies (Bondagers).
Scotland, in the mid-nineteenth century. Six women work on the great Border farmlands owned by an aristocrat from the South of the country. Behind the labours of these women lies a pyramidal and ancestral hierarchy : the aristocrat puts his farms in the hands of master farmers. They in turn employ tenant farmers who take on labourers. Finally, the labourers choose women, at a hiring fair, for seasonal work. Fair or modern-day slave market ? From there come these six peasant women, the youngest of them on the brink of adulthood falls in love for the first time and in so doing shares her passions, her joy and her suffering with the others. All of them carry out the tasks of the absent men, either having emigrated or having gone to fight in the war. Sue Glover, was born in Edinburgh, lives in Fife, and is the author of many works for stage and television.
Regarde les fils de l'Ulster marchant vers la Somme (Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme).
Only men this time, eight soldiers whose tale is part of the 36th Ulster division during the "Great War". Eight men crossing the North Sea and dreaming of victory in the French battle fields. Seven are Protestants from modest backgrounds, only one of them is from a wealthy family. We know from the start of the play that an old man, is the only one of them who survived, as he remembers those years and recalls the dead. They return and bear witness. Sad sons of Ulster having Marched Towards the Somme ! This play by Frank McGuiness was first performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin (and played in English by the same troup in Paris at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in 1996). It is about the barbarity and the indelible scars that mark a people and make them yield under those questions that have no answer. Apart from the question "Who wins in a war ?" There, indeed, the answer is all too obvious.
Distribution
stage direction Guy-Pierre Couleau
"Asservies" (Bondagers) by : Sue Glover
French translation by : Guy-Pierre Couleau
With : Dominique Charpentier, Emmanuelle Grangé, Vanessa Koutseff, Flore Lefebvre des Noëttes, Katia Mayen, Pascale Oudot
"Regarde les fils de l'Ulster marchant vers la Somme" (Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme) by : Frank Mc Guinness
French translation by : Joseph Long and Alexandre Poulain
With : Pascal Durozier, Michel Fouquet, Laurent Huon, Michel Laliberté, Alain Meneust, Philippe Mercier, Nils Ohlund, Olivier Peigné, Antoine Régent
Directed by : Guy-Pierre Couleau
Assistant director : Amélie Blottière
Lighting : Laurent Schneegans
Music originale : Philippe Miller
Stage design : Noëlle Ginefri
Costumes : Pascal Souillart
Production
Coproduction : Des Lumières et des Ombres, Le Moulin du Roc-scène nationale de Niort, Théâtre de Cornouaille-scène nationale de Quimper, Le Théâtre-scène nationale de Poitiers, Le Nouveau Théâtre de Besançon-centre dramatique national
Avec l'aide du : ministère de la Culture et de la Communication direction régionale de l'Action culturelle Poitou-Charentes.
Spectacle : coup de coeur de l'ADAMI