Pour retrouver les témoins, pour éclairer ce qui fut tu, Europe doit aujourd’hui parler. Mais comment affronter ce que l’on a enfoui ? Comment faire face à ce que l’on n’a jamais pu nommer ? Où sommes-nous ? Dans un présent composé où les lieux se superposent, où les époques cohabitent. Qui sont-ils ? Des femmes et des hommes surgis comme des figures de la nuit, traversées par l’héritage de la violence, la culpabilité, le silence. Comment en parler ? En laissant les langues se heurter, se traduire, au cœur d’un même crime. Avec cette pièce chorale, Wajdi Mouawad explore la mémoire d’un crime, le poids du silence et la manière dont le traumatisme traverse les âges.

ENGLISH VERSION

Europe is 8 years old when she witnesses a massacre–and, against her will, is drawn into it. 75 years later, an investigation reopens wounds of the past. Europe, played by Juliette Binoche, is called up to testify.

To find other witnesses, to give voice to what was silenced, Europe must speak out. But how do we confront what we have buried? How do we face what we have never been able to name? Where are we? In a composite present where places overlap, where eras coexist. Who are they? Women and men who emerge like figures from the night, marked by the legacy of violence, guilt and silence. How do we speak? By allowing languages to clash and translate one another, at the heart of the same crime. With this ensemble piece, Wajdi Mouawad explores the memory of a crime, the weight of silence, and the way in which trauma spans the ages.

Following the award-winning plays Tous des oiseaux (at TNB in 2018) and Incendies (adapted with Victor de Oliveira as Incêndios at TNB in 2020), Wajdi Mouawad continues his exploration of the legacy of violence and the power of theatre as a space for healing. Created to mark the 70th anniversary of the Athens Epidaurus Festival in 2025 and restaged during a residency at TNB, these first French performances of Le Serment d’Europe also mark Juliette Binoche’s grand return to the theatre.

© Theofilos Tsimas

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