Theatrical variation with the book by Annie Ernaux
© Editions Gallimard (1987)

In 1986, a woman dies in a retirement home. This woman is Annie Ernaux’s mother. She was the last link between her daughter and her social origin. A few days later, Annie Ernaux engages in the (crazy) project of writing her mother’s life - a working life (from being a factory worker to being a small shopkeeper), a woman’s life, an ordinary life. A memory work and a writing effort so as to “give birth” to her mother’s story and, in the meantime, restoring her own social path.

To incorporate Annie Ernaux’s research into the theater field, we confronted ourselves to a drastic deconstruction of our own professional practices (as actors, stage director, light designer). We had to look deep into ourselves to find our singular writing places. From there on, a theatrical reality surfaced, strongly :  we called it  “scenic subjectiveness”. With it, came the feeling that we were committing a crime and, maybe,  “killing theater”.