La Mémoire des arbres
The secret to keep an entire city at bay. Not a ghost town because life animates this mysterious city. However silence envelops not just its schools, its parks, its hospitals, but even its name. And it spreads to its fields, its river and to its children’s laughter.
In the heart of this place not found on any map, thousands of people are forced to maintain this enormous secret. And those who present even a shadow of treason pay for it with their lives. Others, manipulated, are convinced they are protecting the country by supporting the lie. Together they preserve a vast industrial state and keep quiet about an unheard of environmental catastrophe.
One could think this story is straight out of science fiction. But it isn’t. This secret city and its abuses are part of our world. Even if humankind tries to muzzle the truth, the memory of the trees remain, those of the consciousness that rises and denounces this heavy decades-old creed.
Travelling is an integral part of Fabrice Murgia’s art. The Ghost Road cycle has taken him to singular places where, camera on his shoulder, he has recorded faces, testimony and encounters. La Mémoire des arbres is part of this process. The show’s team has walked these hostile lands and with Josse De Pauw as story teller/historian, it offers us the unmentionable in music and poetry.
Cast
Concept, writing and directing
Fabrice Murgia
With
Josse De Pauw
Children
Compostion, installations and live music
Dominique Pauwels
Translation and travel assistant
Tatiana Mukhamediarova
With the collaboration of
Tatiana Stepanchenko
Translation and direction assistant
Olya Tsoraeva
Dramaturgy assistant
Nadezda Kutepova
Cécile Michel
Set and light design
Giacinto Caponio
Fabrice Murgia
Video design
Giacinto Caponio
Decorator
Anne Marcq
Props
Noémie Vanheste
Research
Virginie Demilier
Interface programmer
Quentin Meurisse
Choir (recording)
Chœurs d’Enfants et de Jeunes de la Monnaie Bruxelles
Choir direction (recording)
Aldo Platteau
Musicale execution (recording)
SPECTRA
Sound technics
Brecht Beuselinck
Light technics
Virgile Morel
Jannes Dierynck
Stage management
Wim Piqueur
Stage director (Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles)
Christophe Blacha
Dimitri Wauters
Video technics
Mohammed Sassi
Stage Manager (Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles)
Romain Gueudré
Video editing
Dimitri Petrovic
Sets and costumes
Ateliers du Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles
Thanks
Gilani Dambaev, Garifulla Habibulin, Gulshara Ismagilova, Gosman Kabirov, Fatima Kobzhasarova, Lubov Lebzina, Natalia Manzurova, Sergueï Kuprienko, Esther Denis, Moussa Benchaoui, Victor Hidalgo, Wout Clarysse, LOGOS, Dada Studios
Création Studio Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles
Production
Cie Artara & LOD muziektheater
Co-production
Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, KVS - Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg, Théâtre Jean-Vilar de Vitry-sur-Seine, Le Théâtre l’Aire Libre à Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande
With the support of
Tax Shelter du Gouvernement Fédéral Belge
Tax shelter partner
Flanders Tax Shelter
