Je crois que dehors c’est le printemps
Gaia Saitta
Giorgio Barberio Corsetti
“They’re playing with friends, I will take them to school tomorrow morning. You’ll go get and them. It was January 30, 2011. I never saw them again.”
Of Italian origin, married, Irina lives in Switzerland. One day, the father of her six-year-old twin daughters decides to take them away. A few days later, the lifeless body of the father is found – he committed suicide – but the girls are missing.
Gaia Saitta and Giorgio Corsetti take hold of this news item – out of which the Italian journalist Concita de Gregorio has created a poignant book – less to retell it than to look beyond it, to capture the breath of resistance, the dazzling poetry of the one who remains.
In a human approach, Gaia Saitta, alone on stage, invites spectators to accompany her, to take on a discreet role on the set, thus giving substance to the story, to Irina’s emotions. Whether they are questioned and/or filmed live, they underline the modesty of the actor’s interpretation and, beyond that, the power of Irina. Powerful with an attention to life. Powerful with a right to happiness that she must reclaim. Because there is the essence of humanity, Irina’s almost “scandalous” beauty: accepting to be touched by love again.
Gaia Saitta is an associate artist at the Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles.
Création Studio Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles
Coproduction Les Halles de Schaerbeek
Theatrical adaptation
Adapting this story in all its veracity to the theatre is not easy. Transposing the emotions of Irina Lucidi and the people involved on stage is even less so.
That’s why, in this theatrical adaptation, Gaia Saitta decides to break with classic theatrical conventions by inviting the public to play an almost silent role, to become the bearers of the fragments of the protagonist's life.
In this show, Gaia Saitta doesn’t claim to tell the true story of Irina Lucidi, but wishes to retrace her journey, her everyday struggle, by inviting us to question ourselves on this life experience at the limit of the paradox of existence. She thus deepens in a subtle and delicate way the theme of the relationship to the other which is already at the heart of this modern tragedy.
Direction
Two screens, one rectangular placed on the ground, the other square suspended three metres off the ground.
A video system that feeds two cameras.
The first, on a tripod, is worked by the actor. The second, hidden in a trolley under a transparent stage, films the actor’s actions from a low angle.
The actor chooses nine audience members ready to accompany her in reconstructing the story. She distributes the roles and invites them to share the stage with her. The people do not have to physically resemble the image that one might have of each character. She installs them each on a chair, in the place provided for the role they are going to interpret. As the show progresses, the participants are questioned and filmed.
The images collected in this way (busts, hands, faces, etc.) are combined with other pre-recorded images, signs, words, until a sort of intimate cartography of the central character is drawn.
In this way Irina's fantasies, nightmares and dreams appear. Thanks to the video, the images are projected onto the two screens, which become windows opening onto the inner world of the protagonist.
The storytelling is non-linear. She moves through time, as if there was neither before nor after, but a here and now.
Touring
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05.04.2022 > 13.04.2022
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16.11.2022 > 26.11.2022
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07.12.2022 > 09.12.2022
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02.03.2023
FRANCE - Maubeuge - Le Manège, Scène Nationale Transfrontalière
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09.05.2023 > 12.05.2023
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06.07.2023 > 27.07.2023
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03.10.2023 > 15.10.2023
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23.01.2024 > 25.01.2024
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31.01.2024
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06.02.2024 > 10.02.2024
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15.03.2024
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19.03.2024 > 30.03.2024
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05.09.2024 > 06.09.2024
SUISSE - Nyon - Usine à gaz - Festival La Bâtie
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07.11.2024
FRANCE - Bastia - Théâtre Alibi
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13.05.2025 > 14.05.2025
FRANCE - Bourges - Maison de la Culture de Bourges
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01.04.2025 > 03.04.2025
FRANCE - Clermont-Ferrand - La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand
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21.01.2025
BELGIQUE - Dinant - Centre culturel régional de Dinant
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11.01.2025
BELGIQUE - Gand - NTGent
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17.01.2025
BELGIQUE - Huy - Centre culturel de l'Arrondissement de Huy
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05.12.2024 > 07.12.2024
FRANCE - Mulhouse - La Filature
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13.11.2024 > 15.11.2024
FRANCE - Nice - Théâtre National de Nice
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17.05.2025
FRANCE - Saint-Michel-sur-Orge - Espace Marcel Carné (EMC)
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14.01.2025 > 15.01.2025
BELGIQUE - Tournai - Maison de la culture de Tournai
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25.03.2025 > 29.03.2025
FRANCE - Valence - La Comédie de Valence
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26.11.2024 > 27.11.2024
FRANCE - Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy - Centre culturel André Malraux
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20.05.2025
FRANCE - Vitry-sur-Seine - Théâtre Jean Vilar
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09.11.2024
FRANCE - Ajaccio - Aghja
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12.09.2024 > 13.09.2024
SUISSE – La Chaux-de-Fonds – Théâtre populaire romand
Information
Contacts:
Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles
International Touring : Céline Gaubert - Head of touring and international relations
Touring in Belgium : Matthieu Defour - Production and tour manager
Production : Juliette Thieme - Head of production
Available for booking: 2023·2024, 2024·2025 & 2025·2026
Video available upon request
Cast
Direction
Gaia Saitta
Giorgio Barberio Corsetti
With
Gaia Saitta
Text
Concita de Gregorio
Stage adaptation
Gaia Saitta
Scenography
Giuliana Rienzi
Dressmaker
Frédérick Denis
Light Design
Marco Giusti
Sound design
Tom Daniels
Video
Igor Renzetti
Co-production
Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, Les Halles de Schaerbeek, If Human (Bruxelles), Le Manège – Scène Nationale de Maubeuge, Théâtre National de Nice - CDN Nice Côte d'Azur