In the earth and stone desert that the Carrière de Boulbon represents, rises up, from nowhere, beings who have fallen, as Michel Foucault said: “You can fall off a mountain and get up alive.” These beings come from an elsewhere, where they were undoubtedly powerful, intelligent, adapted to the world that surrounded them. Perhaps they are fallen gods. Whatever the case, they are presented to us as men and women, sometimes human shades, who have come to recount the noises of the world, fear and solitude. They are there to name the past in order to live the present, to continue to exist in asserting their fragility, in this battlefield that is life. Monologues, dialogues, direct addresses to the public: their words fill the space of this quarry, amplified by music and song. Here, the story does not count as such: it is the force of the one who recounts it that is essential. Because, for Dieudonné Niangouna, words devour the world. For the last 11 years, the Congolese author, actor and director has been “ruminating” Shéda. He has been seeing pictures, perceiving situations, hearing sounds. Today, he is orchestrating this flow of images and words, which are arranged in a metaphorical fresco touching life as much as death, violence as much as love, wisdom as much as madness, the impasse as much as hope. A melting pot of words and thought borne by a chorus of 14 African and European actors and musicians, including Dieudonné Niangouna himself. The figures of Shéda confront each other, fall and get up again in search of water, the guarantee of survival in a world of drought and desolation. Shéda is also the total of what constitutes a life: what we know because we experience it and what we don't know but that is in us because it is our history, that of our ancestors, the one that we have built for ourselves in dreams and books. For Dieudonné Niangouna, it is Homer's Greece as much as Pierre Savorgnan the colonizer of Brazzaville, Koltès as much as Shakespeare, the Andes as much as Kilimanjaro. And a thousand other influences that enrich his dynamited, knocked-about, rapid, energetic theatre writing, aiming at “making ants climb up in the nerves” to not die, so that the truth comes out of shared words. JFP
Distribution
direction Dieudonné Niangouna
scenography Patrick Janvier
lighting Xavier Lazarini
sound Robin Dallier
costumes Vélica Panduru
fighting choreography DeLaVallet Bidiefono
music Pierre Lambla, Armel Malonga
scenography assistant Ludovic Louppé, Papythio Matoudidi
with Laetitia Ajanohun, Marie-Charlotte Biais, Madalina Constantin, Pierre-Jean Étienne, Frédéric Fisbach, Wakeu Fogaing, Diariétou Keita, Abdon Fortuné Koumbha, Harvey Massamba, Mathieu Montanier, Criss Niangouna, Dieudonné Niangouna
and musicians Pierre Lambla, Armel Malonga
Production
production Cie Les Bruits de la Rue - Le Grand Gardon Blanc
coproduction Festival d'Avignon, Holland Festival (Amsterdam), IX Festival International de Buenos Aires, Bonlieu - Scène nationale d'Annecy
Comédie de Reims Centre dramatique national
with the support of: la Ferme du Buisson Scène nationale de Marne-la-Vallée, de la Région Île-de-France, l'Institut français dans le cadre du fonds de production CIRCLES et du programme Afrique et Caraïbes en Créations, de l'Ambassade de France au Congo, l'Institut français du Congo (Brazzaville), l'Association Beaumarchais-SACD, l'Organisation internationale de la Francophonie et d'Ecair
with the exceptional support of TOTAL E&P Congo
Through its support, the Adami helps the Festival d'Avignon to get involved in coproductions.