The action takes place after the disaster. A catastrophe invisible to the naked eye. The end of the world, unnamed, brought about by the crisis. Economic crisis, political crisis, spiritual crisis… Against this backdrop, a woman talks to herself. Plagued by hallucinations that blur reality, she no longer knows who she is. A woman dispossessed of her life, who would like to be reborn elsewhere, in another body.
The four characters who cross paths in La Possession no longer have names. They call themselves first person, second person, etc. Without an identity, how can we build ourselves? Without an identity, how does one construct oneself? There’s something vertiginous about seeing and hearing these beings struggling against an invisible enemy, without landmarks, without words that escape their original meaning. Is it a daydream? A nightmare? We’re in the midst of a fantastic, decaying landscape. This is horror theater, as we say horror cinema, with its ghosts and its sets. François-Xavier Rouyer’s writing is nervous, humorous and highly effective, instilling a climate of tension in every line.
For this project, Charles-Edouard de Surville has imagined a sound creation that fills the entire space and duration of the play, and is more akin to a sound set than a traditional soundtrack. By playing a piano thrown onto the stage, vibrating the set elements and using 24 loudspeakers to play real recordings, he aims to create a “hyper-realistic”, spellbinding space.
Credits:
A play written by François-Xavier Rouyer, with Pauline Belle, Romain Daroles, Mélina Martin, Julia Perazzini
A co-production
Théâtre Vidy – Lausanne / Nanterre-Amandiers, centre dramatique national.
