Alexander Zeldin

The Hungarian film and theatre director Kornél Mundruczó has always been a shrewd observer of the way contemporary society has transformed family structures, as shown in his films White God (2015), a prize-winner at Cannes, Pieces of A Woman (2019) and Evolution (2021). In Parallax, he investigates the notion of identity, at the crossroads between social affirmation and area of freedom.

By means of a family portrait, The Vegetarian, a masterpiece of South Korean literature, charts a dizzying map of violence, be it physical, psychological, or political. Tapping into the the power of the text itself, Daria Deflorian and her onstage companions tease from out of it the stuff of a theatrical elixir.

This show is about how a life can be invented, understood and told at the same time. And about how Simone de Beauvoir, born in 1908, was both author and chronicler of her existence. What kind of energy, what type of combativity does freedom imply? In Les Forces vives, Animal Architecte brings us a fascinating and astonishing fresco of the writer's journey.