On a beautiful late afternoon in Royan, a woman is going home in the golden light of the boulevard. She's coming back from the school where she teaches French when she sees a couple standing up ahead on her doorstep. They're not saying anything, but she recognises them as the parents of one of her students. She doesn't want to see them, petrified both by her determination and by the memories coming back to her. In this double effort to talk about a tragedy while keeping it at arm's length, she speaks about her student Dalila as she saw and loved her, but most of all about herself. Inspired by the true story of a bullied teenager who committed suicide, novelist and playwright Marie NDiaye creates a shining inner monologue. Written for Nicole Garcia, Royan is a chiaroscuro portrait of femininity, in which the vertigo of words expresses the all-consuming violence of human relationships and the prodigious effort we have to exert to get the world to accept us.
Distribution
With Nicole Garcia, (in progress)
Text Marie NDiaye
Direction Frédéric Bélier-Garcia
Lights Dominique Bruguière
Sound Sébastien Trouvé
Set Jacques Gabel
Video Pierre Nouvel
Artistic collaboration Caroline Gonce
Production
Production Les Visiteurs du Soir
Co-production Festival d'Avignon, Compagnie Ariètis 2, Théâtre national de Nice, La Criée Théâtre national de Marseille, Espace Jean Legendre (Compiègne), Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), La Comète Scène nationale de Châlons-en-Champagne, La Maison (Nevers)
