The Cradle of Humankind

Is it a play on the first humans, the discovery of fire, the evolution of the species, slavery, apartheid, our vestiges of animality? This could be quite a handful if Steven Cohen tried to treat these subjects. But he prefers to bring them up, through plastic allusions and situations, to make them slide like beads on a string to form a black and white piece of jewellery, marked with a sumptuous and striking beauty. Black like the depths of the Sterkfontein caves in South Africa, where hominid fossils four million years old were found: an original place that UNESCO calls the “cradle of humankind”. Black, too, like Nomsa Dhlamini, a 90-year-old woman from Swaziland who was the maid of Steven Cohen's parents and who partially raised him. This old lady, with her mild and troubling presence, enters the stage naked, wearing only a G-string and carrying a bow and a quiver. She accompanies the performer in his search for origins, sketches with him the contours of a future in which curves replace straight lines. Nomsa's body and postures crystallize the history of the African continent, sometimes suggesting the Hottentot Venus and the experiments conducted on her in the early 19th century, sometimes the enslavement of black people by chains, but also, and always, its capacity to remain dignified and upright despite all the assaults. Steven Cohen and his former nanny, whose relationship is as affective as it is political – both of them were involved against apartheid – engage in an uncomfortable but fascinating ceremony during which materials and times merge in a single and living continuum: humankind. RB

conception, choreography, scenography and costumes Steven Cohen
lighting Erik Houllier
costumes Léa Drouault
assistant to the creation Elu Kieser
films Steven Cohen, John Hodgkiss
photography John Hodgkiss
video Baptiste Evrard

with Steven Cohen, Nomsa Dhlamini

production Latitudes Prod (Lille)
coproductions Le Quartz National Stage of Brest, Les Spectacles Vivants-Centre Pompidou (Paris), Festival d'Automne in Paris, Le phénix National Stage of Valenciennes, La Bâtie Festival of Geneva, Théâtre Garonne (Toulouse), Le Manège.mons/CECN (Transdigital), Technocité (Mons), Réseau Open Latitudes with the support of the Cultural programme of the European Union
with the support of the Town of Lille, DRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Région Nord-Pas de Calais, Lille Métropole-Communauté urbaine, Institut français, DICREAM, CRRAV (Regional Resources Center for Audiovisual) of Tourcoing and Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains of Tourcoing, within the scope of Transdigital (FEDER/Interreg IV France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen)