ARCHIVES 2014 / Un jour nous serons humains

A woman holds her hands in front of her and says: “One day I will be human”, a sentence David Léon first heard in a psychiatric hospital. The enigma that is that sentence, its power, triggered the writing of a text whose title is its plural form: Un jour nous serons humains (One Day We Will Be Human). This “we” is the meeting of Hélène Soulié, David Léon, and Emmanuel Eggermont, who decided to invite young actress Marik Renner in order to create an eight-handed performance, a quartet in which words, bodies present or absent, the singing of birds, and the rustle of their wings in the Jardin de la Vierge, combine to create a musical and scenic score. It is a call to Humans as well as to Animals. A call not to disappear, swallowed by the world. A call to find a name for that which cannot be named. A breath.

David Léon began writing while at the Paris Conservatory. A playwright who also works as an educator with adults suffering from psychotic disorders, his plays are like so many verbal scores, standing at the border between madness and reason. David Léon works with director Hélène Soulié; his plays are published by Espaces 34.

Director Hélène Soulié studied at the ENSAD in Montpellier and at Paris X. Her directions, characterised by their radical aesthetic choices, are carried by her urgent need “to say” and to make the audience hear “that which cannot be heard.” With her company EXIT, she has directed plays by Tarkos, Fosse, Ibsen, etc. Recently, she directed David Léon's Un Batman dans ta tête (A Batman In Your Head).

A dancer and choreographer, Emmanuel Eggermont works with the company L'Anthracite. The two years he spent in South Korea and his work with Raimund Hoghe left him with a keen eye for what is essential. His writing, precise and minimalist, doubles as a research process on the potential power of the stage.

VDC, April 2014

© photo Christophe Raynaud de Lage