How difficult is it to adapt Federman’s novels on stage?
What was formidable and thus theatrical was the fact that Federman always talks to the reader. He doesn’t write without an addressee. It is very beautiful because of the stratification of addressees: within the novel, he meets people, who then become characters and participants in the novel. Also, there is always another person with him, a professional “listener”, a group of spectators, his wife, or a friend to whom he tells about this meeting and this story. He introduces in the very act of writing a special bond with the listeners who appear in the novel, and also with the readers who act as spectators. This is the reason why his style is, by essence, theatrical.

Éric Massé is a director and actor. He trained at the CNR in Bordeaux and at the École de la Comédie de Saint-Etienne. In 2000, he cofounded with Angélique Clairand the Compagnie des Lumas. Between 2002 and 2004, he wrote a trilogy on modern female murderers. In 2004, he started a research on confinement in prisons and created Concertina (shown at Les Subsistances in 2004) and Marivaux’s L'île des esclaves. This season at Les Subsistances, Éric Massé will work solo on the initial research process for his new production, expected in 2008, and will direct an amateur workshop with people with psychological traumas.

Co-creator of the Federman saga, Angélique Clairand is an actor and a co-founder of Compagnie des Lumas. She has worked with Stanislas Nordey, Roland Fichet, Jean-Claude Berrutti, Frédéric Fisbach, Robert Cantarella, etc. She performs and participates in the creation of most shows presented by the Compagnie des Lumas. She directed Le pansage de la langue at the Nombril du monde Festival in Pougne-Hérisson and Traces de guerre, from letters and war diaries written by her grandparents (production first presented at the Musée National des deux Victoires).

“The humour also comes from the story behind all that. I am a survivor. I should have been reduced to a bar of soap, but I haven’t. The only way I had to live with this huge absence, this gaping hole in me, was to laugh, the alternative being to spend the rest of my life suffering, then to commit suicide like Primo Levi or Paul Celan. Laughing saved me. I am happy.” Raymond Federman.

Éric Massé & Angélique Clairand / They will show at Les Subsistances two of the shows in their Moinous trilogy, to be seen consecutively. Both shows are energetic, full of humour, and picaresque.

Moinous et Sucette: The love trials and tribulations of Sucette, a refined and wealthy Bostonian, and Moinous, an orphan without a country or a home to call his own. This is the story of a chance meeting, real or imagined, in the early 70s, between poverty, family rebellion and political actions. A bittersweet view of America, full of energy and candour.

La Double Vibration: This plays is a race against time to save the Old One from being deported to spatial colonies. History gets entangled with the wildest fantasies, with Federman appearing as a prophet.

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Comments collected by Cathy Bouvard on Tuesday 30 October 2006

Adapted, designed and directed by Angélique Clairand, Éric Massé.
Performed by Anthony Breurec, Charlotte Duran, Riad Gahmi, Pauline Laidet, Marion Lubat, Géraldine Masquelier, Camille Ronge, Antoine Sastre, Benjamin Villemagne. Lighting by Thomas Chazalon.
Videos by Guillaume Marmin.
Choreography by Axelle Mikaëloff.
Costumes and set design by Ateliers de la Comédie de Saint-Étienne.
Photos by Jean-Louis Fernandez.
Production administration: Laurence Rotger.

Coproduced by La Comédie de Saint Etienne, La Compagnie des Lumas, Le Théâtre de Villefranche-sur-Saône, Les Subsistances / Lyon / France. La Compagnie des Lumas is subsidised by Région Rhône-Alpes and funded by Ville de Saint-Etienne, Conseil Général de la Loire and Drac Rhône-Alpes.