Le Lac

by Djo Ngeleka (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

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The 2023 archive

With RFI

RFI allows festival-goers and listeners alike to discover texts by authors from the French-speaking world, most often from Africa or Haiti.

Ça va, ça va le monde with RFI, 2022 © MarieCM Photography

Presentation

Six readings to discover authors from Africa and Haiti who tell a completely different story, far from our daily lives and realities. For this 11th edition, RFI proposes to discover the winner of the RFI Theatre 2022 Prize, the Haitian Gaelle Bien-Aimé, who recounts a daily life of violence and threats in Port-au-Prince, as well as writers who describe an African continent struggling with the demons of modernity. Finally, it is an opportunity to rediscover a text by Kossi Efoui, winner of the 1993 Inter-African Theatre Competition organised by RFI at the time. A prize that "saved his life", according to his own admission, when he was arrested and tortured as a student activist in his country, Togo. For all of them, theatre is both a weapon and a shield, a vital gesture where the urgency to say can be heard in every line. Six texts recorded in Avignon and broadcast around the world on international radio.

Le Lac

In Kinshasa, everything is an excuse to talk and to remake the world. One morning, early, a body falls into the lake... It's not sure but it starts. A young man, an old man quarrel, the crowd has its opinion ... everything mixes to tell the story of the country and to elucidate the mystery ... if there is a mystery.

Actor, director, writer and comedian, Djo Ngeleka sails between several waters. He was born in Lubumbashi, where he lives and works. Since 2010, he has been acting, directing and writing, seeking to offer innovative theatre that breaks with the aesthetics of complacency linked to the need to survive. As an author, he has written four plays: Paris sera pris, M'appelle Wantanshi, Le Lac and La conférence.

Distribution

The Ça va, ça va le monde ! series is designed and coordinated by Pascal Paradou
Reading by
Achille Gwem, Zenabou Mbamba, Arnold Mensah, Daddy Moanda Kamono and Tadié Tuéné
Reading directed by
Armel Roussel
Assisted by
Romain Cinter
Musical creation by
Pierre-Alexandre Lampert

Production

Coproduced by RFI, Compagnie [e]utopia
With
the support the French Institute, SACD for its radio cultural action, Wallonie-Bruxelles International
The author's visit was made possible thanks to the support of the Institut français de Kinshasa.
Live
on RFI's Facebook page Recorded on RFI and rfi.fr

Practical infos