There are figures that become symbols. 15%, which Bruno Meyssat chose as the title of his show, is indispensable for all those who, near or far, are interested in the games of finance, investments and profits. It is THE figure par excellence: the one that indicates the minimum percentage of a return on equity that pension funds investing in a company's capital expect. Below it, it is the open door to economic lay-offs; above it, the satisfaction of managers of an economy that has become almost virtual. This financial capitalism goes beyond its reserved domain and sets its heart on the relationships we have with others, value and uncertainty. Intrigued by this mechanism and always wanting to create theatre out of his questioning, Burno Meyssat, along with his actors, queried economists, traders and witnesses to the subprime crisis. They are transported to a few places of financial power (Wall Street, banks and rating agencies), but also to the places of the victims of this crisis (neighbourhoods in Cleveland, Ohio, devastated by foreclosures) to create a show that is neither an anti-establishment and vengeful tract, nor a documentary, still less a lecture for specialists. The idea here is to offer to the public sequences that allow it, through the presence of bodies, words, images and objects, to plunge into the financial mechanisms and to read the reverse side of our period in them. Without ever forgetting to call up the imagination of those who are exposed on the stage, as well as those who look and listen. It is therefore in a certain way a dialogue, an exchange, a correspondence that is put in place around what the director calls “the fable of all fables”. Because beyond finance, it is our beliefs, our fears, the relationship that man has with the future and therefore with death that will be present on stage. To the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, who put forward one day: “I do God's work”, Bruno Meyssat and his companions reply that finance is not a divine business but the business of men, and therefore of the theatre. JFP
Distribution
conception and direction Bruno Meyssat
scenography Bruno Meyssat, Pierre-Yves Boutrand
lighting Franck Besson
sound Patrick Portella, David Moccelin
costumes Robin Chemin
assistant to the direction Véronique Mailliard
with Gaël Baron, Charles Chemin, Elisabeth Doll, Frédéric Leidgens, Jean-Jacques Simonian, Jean-Christophe Vermot-Gauchy
Production
production Théâtres du Shaman
coproduction Festival d'Avignon, Espace Malraux National Stage of Chambéry and Savoie, Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers National Dramatic Centre, Comédie de Saint-Étienne National Dramatic Centre, National Stage of Sète and of the Bassin de Thau
with the support of Subsistances (Lyon)
and of the Théâtre des Quartiers d'Ivry National Dramatic Centre of the Val-de-Marne, of the GMEM National Centre of musical creation in Marseille, of the Institut français, the Région Rhône-Alpes / Fiacre international and of the French Embassy in the United States of America
Through its support, the Adami helps the Festival d'Avignon to get involved in coproductions.