Je crois que dehors c’est le printemps

“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