Le Sang des promesses
What have we inherited? What are the forces from the past that, despite everything, determine our thoughts and actions? In this monumental work, with its boundless lyricism and exceptional performers, Wajdi Mouawad thrice takes the audience from darkness to light. Wilfrid in Littoral, Jeanne and Simon in Incendies and Loup in Forêts are very young adults who find themselves facing a terrible destiny – war, exile, perverted ideologies, dehumanizing events – forces that have fashioned our times and our lives. Pieced together from fragments of disintegrated history, these three epic tales blaze like emblems of youth that refuses the death imposed upon it, drawing bewitching strength from ancient myths. This impressive theatrical odyssey is making a stop in Montreal, for one performance only. A major event!
“It has been many years since the Avignon Festival has enjoyed a triumphant success such as this, one that indicates a profound reconciliation of an artistic event with theatre of art, the theatre of text that sheds light on our world.”
Le Figaro, 2009
“(Wajdi Mouawad) is one of those remarkable creatures capable of creating a taste for theatre among new generations… The applause continued for a long time, for the audience was moved. That could be seen in their faces during intermission, in the rare silence of real listening.”
Le Monde, 2009
“Three theatre plays with the kick of cocaine, explosives set deep in our heart of hearts… Against the sterile normalization of the soft sciences, Wajdi Mouawad’s theatre demonstrates the absolute victory of words and speech. Don’t miss it.”
France Soir, 2009
“What is striking is the cohesion of this cycle that Mouawad has called Le Sang des Promesses. Already apparent, it becomes all the more so in viewing the three plays one after the other, an occasion to appreciate his obsessions, his revolts, his anxieties and hopes – in short his faith and trust, which is ours as well. I felt that I had journeyed through an odyssey, a voyage, a moment that may very well hold an important place in the history of Quebec theatre.”
Voir, 2009
Written and directed by Wajdi Mouawad
With Jean Alibert, Annick Bergeron, Véronique Côté, Gérald Gagnon, Tewfik Jallab, Yannick Jaulin, Andrée Lachapelle and/or Ginette Morin, Jocelyn Lagarrigue, Linda Laplante, Catherine Larochelle, Isabelle Leblanc, Patrick Le Mauff, Marie-France Marcotte, Bernard Meney, Mireille Naggar, Valeriy Pankov, Marie-Eve Perron, Lahcen Razzougui, Isabelle Roy, Emmanuel Schwartz, Guillaume Séverac-Schmitz, Richard Thériault
Dramaturgy: Charlotte Farcet
Assistant Director: Alain Roy
Artistic Consultant: François Ismert
Set Design: Emmanuel Clolus
Lighting Design: Martin Labrecque, Martin Sirois
Costume Design: Isabelle Larivière
Music Director: Michel F. Côté
Sound design: Michel Maurer
Make-up artist and Hair Stylist: Angelo Barsetti
Production: Au Carré de l'Hypoténuse et Abé Carré Cé Carré - compagnies de création (Paris – Montréal)
Coproduction: Espace Malraux–scène nationale de Chambéry et de la Savoie (France), Festival d’Avignon (France)
With the support of Ministère de la culture, des communications et de la condition féminine–Québec, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, ministère des Relations internationales–Québec, Conseil des Arts du Canada in association with le Centre culturel canadien, and la Région Rhône-Alpes
In association with Place des Arts and Carrefour international de théâtre de Québec
Text: Paul Lefebvre
English Translation: Neil Kroetsch
Photos: Jean-Louis Fernandez