Sylvain Creuzevault Edelweiss (France Fascisme)
[Theatre]In Edelweiss (France Fascisme), devised as the French counterpart to his work on L’Esthétique de la résistance, Sylvain Creuzevault brings to the stage the political and intellectual figures of Collaborationist France. In doing so, he takes the risk of digging up a past that has perhaps never been so present.
On the stage, we are confronted with four actresses, four actors, and a musician. The latter operates modular synthesizers jam-packed with cables hanging out of them, similar to the radio sets of the last century. The figures the piece evokes are those of Pierre Laval, Fernand de Brinon, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Lucien Rebatet, Robert Brasillach and Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, just a few of the inflammatory names forever attached to one of the darkest pages in the history of France... After turning his attentions to the Committee for Public Safety set up in 1793 in the wake of the French Revolution, and the writings of Marx and certain social movements of the XIXth century, Sylvain Creuzevault now ventures to the other end of the political spectrum, and puts the political and intellectual figures of French fascism to the test of theatre. Using a mixture of farce and tragedy, Edelweiss (France Fascism) takes us from Vichy to Sigmaringen, from Collaboration to purification, and then onwards to the construction of the great Gaullist national story. Conceived as the French counterpart to his piece Esthétique de la résistance, he explores the workings of political struggles and the capacity of human beings, and the works they create, to resist. In doing so, he probes the roots of an evil that has perhaps, unfortunately, never been so contemporary...
Please note the use of stroboscopic effects during the show.
