Le Passé
[ The past ]
freely inspired by Léonid Andréïev
directed by Julien Gosselin
company Si vous pouviez lécher mon coeur
with the Festival d'Automne à Paris
duration 4h30 (with interludes)
Odéon 6e
© © Simon Gosselin
with
Guillaume Bachelé
Joseph Drouet
Denis Eyriey
Carine Goron
Victoria Quesnel
Achille Reggiani
Maxence Vandevelde
It is no surprise that Julien Gosselin made a name for himself with an adaptation of Houellebecq’s Atomised (Berthier, 2017). He embodies a theatrical utopia: that of a stage that would speak from the depths of a distant future, far beyond the disappearance of humanity. This same theatrical gaze, which keeps our present at a distance from itself, is now turned towards « the past ». Gosselin has been reading an author in whose eyes the theatre is the place where life is silenced so as to let us « see the dead live again »: the Russian writer and playwright Leonid Andreyev (1871-1919). « His sentences, » says the director, « dig a hole in your heart ». In order to make his voice heard, Gosselin has set out to transform his own stagecraft : welcoming a foregone presence also implies that one allows its forms to haunt the set and is willing to play with the nostalgic remembrance of signs past.
