In 1998, France won the World Football Cup. And the European Union prohibited human cloning, which certainly did not remain in people's memories to the same degree. A need for social cohesion and vertigo when faced with the progress of scientific research structuring the landscape in which Michel Houellebecq's second novel, The Elementary Particles, appeared. Considered by many a monument of contemporary literature, this book has already been adapted for the stage abroad– notably by the Dutch Johan Simons – but never in France. It isn't easy to transpose such a dense and ambitious work, blending poetry, fiction and theory, to the stage. It was precisely this junction between ample narration, assumed lyricism and philosophical scope that motivated Julien Gosselin to take on the project. The Elementary Particles follows the itinerary of two brothers, Bruno and Michel, a literature professor obsessed by sex and a scholar trying to turn humanity into a “related species, reproducible by cloning and immortal”. A placid moralist, Michel Houellebec describes, in a single movement, contemporary affective and sexual deprivation and the possible anthropological consequences of the growing disconnection between sexuality and reproduction. On stage, his cutting language, not deprived of humour, circulates through the bodies of 10 actors, both narrators and characters, singularly shedding light on the text of their youth. Without any additional attributes, they project this language towards us, giving it a few unexpected volumes in music and creating the image of a community on the thin line between the real and what is on paper. Are they the children of the men and women depicted in The Elementary Particles? Their epigones? Or unexpected creatures that might have escaped from a genetics laboratory? Ten figures, in any case, faced with whom we can, today, (re)examine all the relevance of Houellebecq's vision of humanity. RB
Michel Houellebecq has provoked, since 1994 and the publication of his first novel, Whatever, lively controversies and passions. After the worldwide success with the public of The Elementary Particles (1998) and Platform (2001), two books in which he examined minutely, but not without humour, the affective and sexual deprivation of the Western man at the end of the 20th century, in 2010 he was awarded the Goncourt Prize for The Map and the Territory. A polymorphic writer who is also a director, his most recent work, Configuration of the Last Bank, a poetry collection, has just been published by Flammarion.
Distribution
Adaptation, direction and scenography Julien Gosselin
Video Pierre Martin
Lighting Nicolas Joubert
Sound Julien Feryn
Costumes Caroline Tavernier
Direction assistant Yann Lesvenan
Music Guillaume Bachelé
With Guillaume Bachelé, Marine de Missolz, Joseph Drouet, Denis Eyriey, Antoine Ferron, Noémie Gantier, Alexandre Lecroc, Caroline Mounier, Victoria Quesnel, Tiphaine Raffier
Production
Production Si vous pouviez lécher mon coeur
Coproduction Festival d'Avignon, Théâtre du Nord Théâtre national Lille Tourcoing Région Nord-Pas de Calais, La Rose des Vents Scène nationale Lille Métropole (Villeneuve d'Ascq), le phénix Scène nationale de Valenciennes, Théâtre de Vanves Scène conventionnée pour la danse, Le Mail Scène culturelle de Soissons
With the support of Région Nord-Pas de Calais, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication DRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Ville de Lille et de Beaumarchais-SACD
Festival d'Avignon is supported by BNP Paribas Foundation for this show.