L’Autre monde (The Other World)

The Other World is freely adapted from Cyrano's story Les Etats et empires de la lune. The inventiveness and freedom of this novel make it surprisingly modern. Cyrano created an extra-terrestrial society the complete opposite of that of Earth. The young rule over the old, sexual freedom is an obligation, decay a dishonour, glory and wealth a source of shame. Beyond the social utopia, the text serves as an illustration of the most advanced Epicurean and libertine ideas, defends the idea that the Earth rotates around the sun, delves into the creation of stars and the existence of the void, and contains demonstrations about the non-existence of God and the soul. It's also a festival of technical flights of fancy. Cyrano comes up with countless ways to travel through space, invents mobile cities, nutritious smoke, and the tape recorder. This adaptation also uses excerpts from Les Etats et empires du soleil, as well as from La Mort  d'Agrippine and Le Pédant joué. Cyrano appears along with his tight-knit group of libertine friends: d'Assoucy, Chapelle, Le Bret, and his brother Abel.

Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac was neither a noble nor a Gascon, contrary to what Rostand's play would have you believe. Born in 1619, he was the son of a Parisian lawyer, the owner of the Bergerac estate in the Chevreuse valley. At age 17, he was a good-for-nothing gambler and drinker always ready for a fight. He befriended the libertine poets Saint-Aman and Tristan L'Hermite, then d'Assoucy, with whom he likely had a homosexual relationship, as well as another libertine, Chapelle, a student of Epicurean philosopher Gassendi. His many duels made him famous. He joined the royal army and was wounded during the siege of Arras in 1640. With the complicity of his brother Abel, he stole everything from his father shortly before his death. But he also loved reading and learning. His friend Lebret, who would be his biographer, tried to temper his impulses and to lead him back to a more quiet life. Cyrano wrote Le Pédant Joué (The Pedant tricked), a comedy from which Molière would steal “what did he want to go in that galley for” for The Impostures of Scapin. He published very violent pamphlets against writers and actors, and wrote a tragedy, La Mort d'Agrippine (The Death of Agrippina), which caused a scandal due to its atheism. He died after an accident in 1755. Two proto-science fiction stories, Les Etats et empires de la lune (The States and Empires of the Moon) and L'Histoire comique des Etats et empires du  soleil (Comical History of the States and Empires of the Sun), were published posthumously.

Pierre Jourde is a university professor who has published several essays about 19th- and 20th-century literature, and is currently editing the novels of Joris-Karl Huysmans for “La Pléiade”. He is the author of many novels and stories, including Pays perdu, Maréchal absolu, Paradis noirs, and Le Voyage du canapé-lit, as well as satirical texts about literature such as La Littérature sans estomac, Le Jourde, and Naulleau.

With Christophe Allwright (Clisthène), Emilie Chertier (Hécate), Alain Fromager (Agrippa), Xavier Gallais (Cyrano), Emmanuel Suarez (Gomez) And the students l'ensemble 26 de l'ERACM : Tiebeu Marc-Henry Brissy Ghadout, Tamara Lipszyc, Nans Merieux, Lucas Sanchez

Adaptation Pierre Jourde
Music Sébastien Quencez
Direction Baptiste Guiton
Dramaturgy Pauline Thimonnier