“I've looked for you, Roberto, I've looked for you, I've betrayed you, I've cried for you, cried to the point that I've become a tiny island in the middle of the sea, about to drown under the last waves. I've suffered so much that my pain could fill the chasms of the earth and make the volcanoes spill over,” says the Girl to Roberto Zucco, a character based on an actual serial killer, exalted by Bernard-Marie Koltès's words. A murderer without a motive, he decimated his own family, killed innocent citizens, and executed policemen. On his quest to find himself, he meets a rebellious young girl with no identity, who falls in love with him: the Girl. Her rage will lead her to lose herself for him in a place with the fateful name of Little Chicago. Around them, society growls and rumbles, even though it has shown itself to be incapable of containing the violence it creates. How could it condemn what it has given birth to, adrift mothers and melancholic detectives, virginal big sisters or pimps for brothers? So Zucco destroys, without any further excuse. For this story inspired by a much too real tragedy, for those incomprehensible actions and through this character who commits more and more crimes, Yann-Joël Collin wanted every one of the students of the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique to become a part of this monster. On the stage, they'll present this desperate attempt at identification, which shines a light on what makes the human.
Yann-Joël Collin
Yann-Joël Collin and Jean-François Sivadier once met writer and director Didier-Georges Gabily, who would play a fundamental role in their artistic development. With him, they created the T'chang'G! group, whose emblematic project remains the diptych Violences I and II in 1991. Meanwhile, Yann-Joël Collin joined the school of the Théâtre National de Chaillot, then directed by Antoine Vitez, where he forged lasting friendships. Those would form the foundation, in 1993, of the company La Nuit surprise par le Jour (Cyril Bothorel, Éric Louis, Gilbert Marcantognini). Together, they took part in The Snowmen, directed by Stéphane Braunschweig, before creating exceptional artistic and human adventures, including Bertolt Brecht's Man Equals Man and The Elephant Calf; William Shakespeare's Henry IV (Avignon 1998, in the Cloître des Célestins) and A Midsummer Night's Dream; Didier-Georges Gabily's Violences-reconstitution and TDM3; Molière's trilogy Le Bourgeois, la mort et le comédien; Pascal Collin's La Nuit surprise par le jour; Anton Chekhov's The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard... Yann-Joël Collin has also appeared as an actor in plays directed by Anointer Vitez, Daniel Mesguich, Claire Lasne-Darcueil, Éric Louis, Wissam Arbache, Olivier Py...
Bernard-Marie Koltès
Bernard-Marie Koltès wrote the play Roberto Zucco in 1988, following the arrest of serial killer Roberto Succo. The last play of a prolific career, it obeys the same ideals of rebellion and liberty the writer defended throughout his life. From his brief stint as stage manager at the Théâtre national de Strasbourg to his encounter with Patrice Chéreau, from his travels in Africa, the United States, and the USSR to his drug addiction and his admiration for Rimbaud, Koltès left his mark on the 20th century with his writing “full of anxiety,” until his death from AIDS in 1989. His plays, such as Quay West, Struggle of the Blacks and the Dogs, Salinger, Night Just Before the Forests, translated and performed throughout the world, remain, by their violence and intensity, perfectly modern.
Distribution
Direction Yann-Joël Collin
Dramaturgy Pascal Collin
Lights Lauriano de La Rosa
Costumes Camille Aït Allouache
Assistant director Florent Hu
Assistant conceptor Laurent Pawlosky
With James Borniche, Margaux Chatelier, Louise Chevillotte, Manon Chircen, Marceau Deschamps-Ségura, Charlie Fabert, Louise Guillaume, Florent Hu, Roman Jean-Elie, Hugues Jourdain, Jean-Frédéric Lemoues, Sipan Mouradian, Morgane Real, Roxanne Roux, Léa Tissier, Alexiane Torres et Sélim Zahrani
Textes Bernard-Marie Koltès, Didier-Georges Gabily
Production
Production Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique
Roberto Zucco by Bernard-Marie Koltès, is published by Éditions de Minuit and Prologue. Sur le théâtre by Didier-Georges Gabily is published by Actes-Sud papiers