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L'Européenne
David Lescot
L'Européenne
photo :www.landesbuehne-nord.de
Actes du théâtre n° 27.[ imprimer ]
What if the European cultural scene were played out and mandated onstage and to music? How can Europe get going again with a composer who thinks he can do better than Beethoven, an epic poet, a rebel Portuguese performer, a German installation artist, a Belgian linguist who is a fan of passive inter-comprehension, a fleeting young Slovak woman, three musicians in search of an orchestra, an overwhelmed deputy delegate and the oldest living European woman?
The arts must come to their assistance, but can they stand up to a reality check? Does speaking to one another mean we understand each other?

"The central idea, as indicated by the title, is Europe, and in particular how to get it moving in a more modern way. [...]
It's very funny, and moving, and David Lescot raises the question in his play of whether art helps people in their lives, and whether a reality check will prevail over the best intentions in the world. Three men, four women and three musicians are onstage in this pageant of words - a festival of language and a celebration of human intelligence."
Sébastien Faramans, La Marseillaise, 17 June 2007




Opens 12-20 May 2009 at the Comédie de Reims. Opens in Paris, Théâtre de la Ville, October 2009.
[The play has previously been staged in two different productions: on 1st August 2007 at the Théâtre du Peuple de Bussang (dir. by Charlie Degotte); on 13 September 2008 at the Landsbühne in Wilhelmshaven, Germany (dir. by Olaf Strieb).]

Composer and Director: David Lescot. Scenic Design: Alwyne Dedardel. Lighting: Joël Hourbeigt. Costumes: Sylvette Dequest. Props: Philippe Binard. Assistant Director: Laïs Foulc. Musical & Singing Director: Virgile Vaugelade. Cast: Elizabeth Mazev, Olga Grumberg, Scali Delpeyrat, Christophe Vandevelde, Lenka Luptakova, Victor Hugo Pontes, Marie Dompnier, Virgile Vaugelade (saxophone), Cl¨¦ment Lendais (bass), Karine Germaix (accordeon).

German Translation by Uli Menke.

Characters : 4 women - 3 men - 3 musicians (of either gender)
Actes Sud-Papiers - www.actes-sud.fr

Norma Gette, the Deputy Delegate and Albine Degryse the linguist downstage.

ALBINE DEGRYSE Who are these people?

NORMA GETTE Be polite to them. Treat them well. Some of them can understand everything you’re saying. They are interpreters for the European Union’s official languages.

ALBINE DEGRYSE But there are swarms of them. Do you know them all?

NORMA GETTE That one for instance is a Swede who translates German. Next to him there’s the Swede who translates English, and then the Swedish woman who does Italian. That’s the Slovene who translates Portuguese, and she’s the Frenchwoman who translates Castilian, sitting next to a Pole who translates Czech, but the Czech who translates Polish is over there, far away. They asked them to sit next to each other to make it simpler but he didn’t understand. The Estonian who does Lithuanian is next to the Lithuanian who does Estonian. That’s good. The Greek who does Italian is not next to the Italian woman who does Greek, who is over there. The same goes for the Spanish-Portuguese-Portuguese-Spanish ¯ too bad. There’s the Latvian who translates Slovak, and over there I recognize the Hungarian woman who translates French, who’s between the Finn who translates German and the Englishwoman who translates Modern Greek. Granted, the Estonian-Lithuanian and Lithuanian-Estonian are the only ones next to each other as they should be, but it doesn’t matter. That man is Danish-Dutch, over there it’s Spanish-Maltese, Maltese-Finnish, German-Polish, Hungarian-Slovenian, Latvian-German, Greek-Danish. That woman over there is Bulgarian and she translates Lithuanian. Over here is the Rumanian who does Modern Greek, and the Spanish lady who translates Danish. Near her is the Portuguese-speaking Rumanian woman, the French-speaking Greek, the German-speaking Frenchman, the Spanish-speaking Dutchwoman, the Slovenian-speaking Slovak, and the Polish-speaking Bulgarian. There’s the Finn doing Rumanian, the Frenchman doing English, the Czech doing Danish, the Greek doing Finnish, the Englishwoman doing Hungarian, the Czech doing Swedish, the Estonian doing Greek, the Maltese doing Czech, the Latvian doing Castilian, the Dutchman doing German, the Italian-speaking Bulgarian, the Bulgarian-speaking Portuguese, the Lithuanian doing French, the Slovene doing Polish, the Danish woman doing Modern Greek, the Polish woman doing Slovenian, the German doing French, and there’s the Italian woman doing English, the Bulgarian doing Rumanian and the Frenchman doing Italian.