Exils
INSPIRATION In Dakar, I worked with a Senegalese actor El Hadji Abdou Rahmane Ndiaye alias Cabila. This meeting inspired the theme of Exils. Narrating four life stories, including that of a migrant, was my way of asking important questions about living together in the big European cities. I wondered if the Schengen Area actually stifles diversity. My concerns are not merely political: what interests me is the way we can feel like exiles in our own lives, the way the system can make us feel invisible.
EXTRACT Cabila, in a phone box, speaking Wolof Mum? Can you hear me? Yes, yes. How are you? Did you get the money? That’s the third time they’ve pulled that trick on me. I’m going to change banks. I’m really sorry, Mum. It happens. I understand. Come home?… I’ll have to find the time. So much work. There’s no end to it. Time goes too fast here. I’ll come soon
PRESS Exils launches the ambitious programme Villes en Scène / Cities on Stage involving six European cities, six leading theatres and seven productions. Before Joël Pommerat or Frank Castorf among others, Murgia started the ball rolling with a difficult subject. (…) Short sketches tackle the subject of exile, aided by the compelling stage presence of a Senegalese actor, Cabila, speaking French or Wolof. Working against an overly literal interpretation, Fabrice Murgia has opted for a poetic mode of expression, similar to the plastic arts, extending the concept of exile to all types of exile (a person suffering from burnout, symbolized by a flurry of papers, and death, the final exile…).
21
© Cici Olsson
GUY DUPLAT La Libre Belgique