FRATERNITÉ, Conte fantastique

»FRATERNITY, A Fantastic Tale«
(Paris)
by Caroline Guiela Nguyen and the entire artistic team
Director: Caroline Guiela Nguyen

Planet Earth, one afternoon, sometime in the future. A solar eclipse darkens the globe. All eyes are on the sky, for an infinitely long time. Suddenly, when the sun reappears four minutes later, everything is different: half of humanity is missing. It has disappeared without reason or trace. The event is henceforth referred to as the Great Solar Eclipse.

Thus begins »FRATERNITÉ, Conte fantastique«, a fable that examines the notion of brotherhood or sisterhood respectively in the face of a human catastrophe. Everyone has lost loved ones and is trying to help each other through this loss, to find a personal way to face the pain and share their sadness and anger. And they are founding new institutions. This is how the »Centres for Consolation and Care« are created in which volunteers attend to the tears and memories of the bereaved, practicing a kind of »empathetic administration«. Having the appearance of community centres, they are places where the angry, unredeemed and mourning can meet, support each other, and rediscover hope and laughter.

Following her play »SAIGON«, presented at FIND 2018, Caroline Guiela Nguyen now creates a vision of the future with »FRATERNITÉ, Conte fantastique« which inspires courage and hope in the face of a great catastrophe and preserves the faith in our human ability to help each other. The production is the second part of the »Fraternité« trilogy whose first instalment comprised the film »Les Engloutis« (The Departed), made with longterm prisoners in an Arles prison. The third part, with the working title of »L’Enfance, la Nuit« (Childhood, the Night) is being developed with actors from the Schaubühne ensemble and will premiere in Berlin in autumn 2022.

With: Dan Artus, Saadi Bahri, Hoonaz Ghojallu, Maïmouna Keita, Nanii, Elios Noël, Alix Petris, Lamya Regragui, Saaphyra, Vasanth Selvam, Hiep Tran Nghia, Anh Tran Nghia, Mahia Zrouki
Artistic collaboration: Claire Calvi
Set Designer: Alice Duchange
Costume Designer: Benjamin Moreau
Lighting Designer: Jérémie Papin
Video Designer: Jérémie Scheidler
Sound Designer: Antoine Richard
Composers: Teddy Gauliat-Pitois, Antoine Richard
Dramaturg: Hugo Soubise, Manon Worms
Production: Les Hommes Approximatifs. Executive production: Les Hommes Approximatifs, Festival d’Avignon. French coproduction: Odéon Théâtre de l’Europe, ExtraPôle Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur*, La Comédie – CDN de Reims, Théâtre National de Bretagne, Théâtre National de Strasbourg, Châteauvallon scène nationale, Théâtre de l’Union – CDN du Limousin, Théâtre Olympia CDN de Tours, MC2: Grenoble, La Criée – Théâtre national de Marseille, Le Grand T théâtre de Loire-Atlantique, Célestins – Théâtre de Lyon, Comédie de Colmar – CDN Grand Est Alsace, La rose des vents – Scène nationale Lille Métropole Villeneuve d’Ascq, Le Parvis – Scène nationale Tarbes Pyrénées, Théâtre National de Nice, Théâtre du Beauvaisis – Scène nationale. International Coproducers: PROSPERO – Extended Theatre, Theatre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, Theatre de Liege, Les theatres de la ville de Luxembourg, Centro Dramatico Nacional Madrid, Dramaten Stockholm, Schaubühne Berlin, Teatro Nacional D. Maria II Lisbonne, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Festival Romaeuropa

Duration: ca. 190 minutes

With kind support of Institut fran.ais Deutschland. Supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin.