Neandertal

They’re scientists taking up a challenge: to decipher fragments of ancient DNA. But they’re also men and women who, over the course of their investigation, will fall in and out of love. Inspired by Nobel Prize winner Svante Pääbo’s research on Neanderthal and by his biography, as well as by the lives of Rosalind Franklin, Gregor Mendel, Craig Venter, and Maja Paunović, director David Geselson continues this project most dear to him: to show how the private lives of individuals can be impacted by History and how it can sometimes be transformed in turn. Following up on Doreen and Le Silence et la peur, this new fiction is based on autobiographical stories and gives six actors the opportunity to enter the everyday life of researchers striving to write a new narrative. Private life and research clash and fuel each other while their different discoveries, wrested from the loneliness of laboratories, upend our vision of the story of our origins and shatter all ideas of racial and ethnic purity.

Neandertal by David Geselson will be published in the fall of 2023.

Interview with David Geselson

With David Geselson, Adeline Guillot, Marina Keltchewsky, Laure Mathis, Elios Noël, Dirk Roofthooft and Jérémie Arcache (cello), Marine Dillard (drawings)
Written and directed by David Geselson
Scenography Lisa Navarro
Light Jérémie Papin
Video Jérémie Scheidler
Sound Loïc Le Roux
Music Jérémie Arcache
Costumes Benjamin Moreau
Assistant director Aurélien Hamard-Padis, Jade Maignan
Set design by Margaux Nessi
Light design by Rosemonde Arrambourg
Interaction and stage management Jérémie Gaston-Raoul
Sound design Orane Duclos
Costume design Florence Demingeon
Dramaturgy Quentin Rioual
Exterior design Juliette Navis
Croatian translation Tiana Krivokapić
General management Sylvain Tardy
Stage management Nicolas Hénault, Kayla Krog
Lighting Rosemonde Arrambourg
Video Jérémie Scheidler
Sound Orane Duclos
English Surtitles Jennifer Gay
Surtitles Victoria Marian
Sound Assistant Marius Nougier

Production manager Noura Sairour
Production and tour management Laëtitia Fabaron
Distribution and press relations AlterMachine, Carole Willemot
Scientific advisors Évelyne Heyer and Sophie Lafosse (eco-anthropology, Musée de l'Homme), Cyrille Le Forestier (archaeo-anthropology, INRAP), Julie Birgel (CAGT)

Freely inspired by:

Néandertal, à la recherche des génomes perdus de Svante Pääbo, Les liens qui libèrent, 2015

Rosalind Franklin, la Dark lady de l’ADN de Brenda

Maddox, Des femmes-Antoinette Fouque, 2012

Les fossoyeuses de Taina Tervonen, Marchialy, 2021

Production Compagnie Lieux-Dits
Coproduction Théâtre Dijon Bourgogne CDN, Théâtre de Lorient CDN, La Comédie CDN de Reims, Théâtre Gérard Philipe CDN de Saint-Denis, Théâtre- Sénart Scène nationale (Lieusaint), ThéâtredelaCité CDN Toulouse Occitanie, Comédie de Genève, MAIF Social Club, Festival d'Avignon, Le Canal Théâtre du pays de Redon Scène conventionnée d'intérêt national art et création pour le théâtre, Théâtre d'Arles, Malakoff Scène nationale, MC93 Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis à Bobigny, Le Gallia Théâtre Scène conventionnée d'intérêt national art et création (Saintes), Théâtre de Choisy-le-Roi Scène conventionnée d'intérêt national art et création pour la diversité linguistique
With the support of the Ministère de la Culture, Région Île-de-France, Département du Val-de-Marne, Institut français du Royaume-Uni / Cross-Channel Theatre for the English translation and for the 77th edition of the Festival d'Avignon: Spedidam
With the support of la vie brève - Théâtre de l'Aquarium (Paris), Centre national des dramaturgies contemporaines Théâtre Ouvert (Paris), MC93 Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis for the construction of the sets La compagnie Lieux-Dits is subsidised by the Ministère de la Culture Drac Île-de-France
Acknowledgements Frédérique Aït-Touati, Sharif Andoura, Jean-Marc Barbance, Caroline Barneaud, Razya Ben-Porat, Élodie Bouédec, Martine Bom, Jeanne Candel, Alexandre Caputo, Bénédicte Cerutti, Yannick Choirat, Servane Ducorps, Sébastien Éveno, Delphine Hecquet, Manon Kneusé, Isabelle Le Ber, Kristel Marcoen, Serge Rangoni, Arno Seghiri, Joséphine Supe For the loan of scenographic elements and technical tools: Le Laboratoire de séquençage du CEA/ Genoscope, Le Théâtre du Peuple (Bussang), La Compagnie Magique-Circonstancielle, la vie brève - Théâtre de l'Aquarium (Paris), Le Théâtre Dijon Bourgogne Centre dramatique national, La Comédie Centre dramatique national de Reims