Valentina

One evening, when Valentina comes home from school, she discovers a note on the table. It contains a message to her mother, written by the family doctor in French, a language her mother doesn’t speak. The message needs to be translated. So, Valentina suddenly finds herself face to face with her mother, with an unspeakable truth on the tip of her tongue. A piece of news that might existentially disturb her mother, terrify her and damage her life forever. Should she tell her mother the truth in her mother tongue? The truth, which can be hoped for, feared, fought against and suppressed, is at the centre of Caroline Guiela Nguyen’s latest play, which she is developing at the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, which we will be showing as previews at our festival, weeks before the premiere in France. The starting point was Nguyen’s interest in the perspective of children and the truth. Why do we tell children lies? Is it to protect them? To put them to sleep? Or is it to tell them nice stories to tell their children later? During the writing process, Ngyuen researched the Romanian community in Strasbourg, in kindergartens and primary schools and conducted interviews with teachers, educators, parents and children – and with interpreters. Her play, written like a fairy tale, aims less to provide answers to these questions than to explore the boundaries between childlike naivety and the adult assumption of responsibility, reality and fiction, translation and interpretation can lie. We are showing Caroline Guiela Nguyen’s latest production in an exclusive preview before it premieres in Strasbourg at the end of April. The director will offer insights into her theatre practice in an artist talk.

STAGE DESIGN Alice Duchange
VIDEO: Jérémie Scheidler
MUSIC: Teddy Gauliat-Pitois
DRAMATURGY: Juliette Alexandre
SOUND DESIGN: Quentin Dumay
LIGHT DESIGN: Mathilde Chamoux

WITH: Chloé Catrin, Loredana Iancu, Marius Stoian, Paul Guta, Angelina Iancu/Cara Parvu (alternating)