Neandertal

  • Show
  • Theatre
The 2023 archive

David Geselson

France / Creation at the Festival d'Avignon 2023

When science upends the story of our origins. Based on Nobel Prize winner Svante Pääbo’s work on Neanderthal, this fiction invites us into the life of those scientists who worked ceaselessly to revolutionise our understanding of the world.

Neandertal, David Geselson, 2023 © Christophe Raynaud de Lage

Presentation

They’re scientists taking up a challenge: to decipher fragments of ancient DNA. But they’re also men and women who, over the course of their investigation, will fall in and out of love. Inspired by Nobel Prize winner Svante Pääbo’s research on Neanderthal and by his biography, as well as by the lives of Rosalind Franklin, Gregor Mendel, Craig Venter, and Maja Paunović, director David Geselson continues this project most dear to him: to show how the private lives of individuals can be impacted by History and how it can sometimes be transformed in turn. Following up on Doreen and Le Silence et la peur, this new fiction is based on autobiographical stories and gives six actors the opportunity to enter the everyday life of researchers striving to write a new narrative. Private life and research clash and fuel each other while their different discoveries, wrested from the loneliness of laboratories, upend our vision of the story of our origins and shatter all ideas of racial and ethnic purity.

Neandertal by David Geselson will be published in the fall of 2023.

Interview with David Geselson

Distribution

With David Geselson, Adeline Guillot, Marina Keltchewsky, Laure Mathis, Elios Noël, Dirk Roofthooft and Jérémie Arcache (cello), Marine Dillard (drawings)
Written and directed by
David Geselson
Scenography
Lisa Navarro
Light
Jérémie Papin
Video
Jérémie Scheidler
Sound
Loïc Le Roux
Music
Jérémie Arcache
Costumes
Benjamin Moreau
Assistant director
Aurélien Hamard-Padis, Jade Maignan
Set design by
Margaux Nessi
Light design by
Rosemonde Arrambourg
Interaction and stage management
Jérémie Gaston-Raoul
Sound design
Orane Duclos
Costume design
Florence Demingeon
Dramaturgy
Quentin Rioual
Exterior design
Juliette Navis
Croatian translation
Tiana Krivokapić
General management
Sylvain Tardy
Stage management
Nicolas Hénault, Kayla Krog
Lighting
Rosemonde Arrambourg
Video
Jérémie Scheidler
Sound
Orane Duclos
English Surtitles
Jennifer Gay
Surtitles
Victoria Marian
Sound
Assistant Marius Nougier

Production manager Noura Sairour
Production and tour management
Laëtitia Fabaron
Distribution and press relations
AlterMachine, Carole Willemot
Scientific advisors
Évelyne Heyer and Sophie Lafosse (eco-anthropology, Musée de l'Homme), Cyrille Le Forestier (archaeo-anthropology, INRAP), Julie Birgel (CAGT)

Freely inspired by:

Néandertal, à la recherche des génomes perdus de Svante Pääbo, Les liens qui libèrent, 2015

Rosalind Franklin, la Dark lady de l’ADN de Brenda

Maddox, Des femmes-Antoinette Fouque, 2012

Les fossoyeuses de Taina Tervonen, Marchialy, 2021

Production

Production Compagnie Lieux-Dits
Coproduction Théâtre Dijon Bourgogne CDN, Théâtre de Lorient CDN, La Comédie CDN de Reims, Théâtre Gérard Philipe CDN de Saint-Denis, Théâtre- Sénart Scène nationale (Lieusaint), ThéâtredelaCité CDN Toulouse Occitanie, Comédie de Genève, MAIF Social Club, Festival d'Avignon, Le Canal Théâtre du pays de Redon Scène conventionnée d'intérêt national art et création pour le théâtre, Théâtre d'Arles, Malakoff Scène nationale, MC93 Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis à Bobigny, Le Gallia Théâtre Scène conventionnée d'intérêt national art et création (Saintes), Théâtre de Choisy-le-Roi Scène conventionnée d'intérêt national art et création pour la diversité linguistique
With the support of the Ministère de la Culture, Région Île-de-France, Département du Val-de-Marne, Institut français du Royaume-Uni / Cross-Channel Theatre for the English translation and for the 77th edition of the Festival d'Avignon: Spedidam
With the support of la vie brève - Théâtre de l'Aquarium (Paris), Centre national des dramaturgies contemporaines Théâtre Ouvert (Paris), MC93 Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis for the construction of the sets La compagnie Lieux-Dits is subsidised by the Ministère de la Culture Drac Île-de-France
Acknowledgements Frédérique Aït-Touati, Sharif Andoura, Jean-Marc Barbance, Caroline Barneaud, Razya Ben-Porat, Élodie Bouédec, Martine Bom, Jeanne Candel, Alexandre Caputo, Bénédicte Cerutti, Yannick Choirat, Servane Ducorps, Sébastien Éveno, Delphine Hecquet, Manon Kneusé, Isabelle Le Ber, Kristel Marcoen, Serge Rangoni, Arno Seghiri, Joséphine Supe For the loan of scenographic elements and technical tools: Le Laboratoire de séquençage du CEA/ Genoscope, Le Théâtre du Peuple (Bussang), La Compagnie Magique-Circonstancielle, la vie brève - Théâtre de l'Aquarium (Paris), Le Théâtre Dijon Bourgogne Centre dramatique national, La Comédie Centre dramatique national de Reims

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The 2023 archive

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The 2023 archive