Wajdi Mouawad is a Lebanese-Quebec playwright and director. His play Littoral tells of the story of a son seeking a place to bury his father's remains. In the play, Wilfried, the hero, has the opportunity to make some essential human encounters, all those he meets are trying to find their origins, their identity, references and values such as love, tolerance, reconci-eliation with one's self and with others. Wadji Mouawad's writing is, at times, trivial or lyrical, and translates the baroque aspect of life as experienced by a child of war. Wilfried is an autobiographical char-acter.
The son actually drags the father's body on his back and the audience physically feels the weight of the corpse, and the weight of the actor. The play is something of an odyssey, with the son finding his way back to himself and to the source. Littoral is difficult to describe, but its sense can be found in the stylisation of the movements, in this determination to find a meaning to life, and when it has been found, in going from one town to another telling the tale, a tale of drama that is incarnated by a troupe of brilliant actors.
Distribution
stage direction Wajdi Mouawad
Music : Mathieu Farhoud – Dionne
Scenography et costumes : Charlotte Rouleau
Lighting : Michel Beaulieu
Avec : David Boutin, Manon Brunelle, Pascal Contamine, Claude Despins, Steve Laplante, Isabelle Leblanc, Miro et Gilles Renaud
Production
Production : Théâtre Ô Parleur
Avec le soutien du : conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec, du ministère des Affaires étrangères du Canada, de la Délégation générale du Québec et du service culturel de l'Ambassade du Canada.
Spectacle créé au : Festival de Théâtres des Amériques 1997,
présenté en France dans le cadre : du Printemps du Québec par le Festival international des francophonies en Limousin.
Le Printemps du Québec est organisé par : le commissariat général du Printemps du Québec France (1999), en collaboration avec l'Association française d'action artistique-ministère des Affaires étrangères et le département des Affaires internationales-ministere de la Culture et de la Communication
Texte édité par : Actes-Sud Papiers en juillet 1999