Luca Giacomoni

« It all began on a day of violence. » Homer

Homer bequeathed us the two founding gestures of the Western imagination: a war and a journey. In a way, it is exactly what we do in the course of a lifetime: fighting to protect what is dear to us and overcoming a thousand obstacles in order to be able to say one day ‘this is my true homeland’. The opportunity to give stage form to this double movement arose when – in 2015, following the Charlie Hebdo attacks – the cultural director of the Meaux prison asked me to run a theater workshop on the roots of violence.

In a radical Islam prevention programme, I met men who embodied – in my eyes – the heroes and kings of Greek myth. The struggle for dignity and the wait for return suddenly took on a whole new dimension. Two years of work with a group of professional and non-professional actors, prisoners and ex-prisoners, gave birth to Iliad: a theatrical and human adventure that has since set a precedent in the French prison system.

ILIAD
Based on Homer’s Iliad and Homer, Iliad by Alessandro Baricco
Director Luca Giacomoni
Translation Paul Mazon, Françoise Brun
With Armelle Abibou, Mourad Ait Ouhmad, Samir Ben Malek, Hugues Dangreaux, Laurent Evuort Orlandi, Christopher Firmin, Cyril Guei, Jean-Baptiste Guinchard, Séphora Haymann, Peter Hudson, Brontis Jodorowsky, Sid Ali Hanifi, Lévy Kasse Sampah, Moussa Konate, Eliott Lerner, Ali Marsaoui, Louis Plesse, Bryan Polach, Michel Quidu, Jamal Yatim, Kamel Zada
Singing Sara Hamidi
Dramaturgy Marta Fallani
Assistant Director Giuseppina Comito
Lighting design Sean Seago

Production Why Theatre / With the support of the DRAC Île-de-France / With the support of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, Ministry of Justice, Arcadi Île-de-France, SPEDIDAM, Mains d’Œuvres, Les Plateaux Sauvages / Coproductions Centre pénitentiaire de Meaux Chauconin-Neufmontiers, SPIP Seine-et-Marne, DISP de Paris, Théâtre Paris-Villette / With the support of Humanités, Digital et Numérique Foundation and Meyer Foundation for Cultural and Artistic Development.

Duration / 10 episodes of 1h

« He who has been shipwrecked trembles even in the face of calm waters. » Ovid

In 2018, a friend invited me to propose a theater workshop at the Saint-Denis Women’s House: a shelter, in the Parisian suburbs, for women victims of violence. In order to familiarize myself with the place, I asked to take part in some speech groups: the first one was about excision and female genital mutilation. A sensitive and violent topic, so violent that we prefer to imagine it far away from us. That day, I listened to women talk about this mutilation, experienced by themselves and so many others they had known.

In the group, there was talk of snakes being born in human guise, like children; women being turned into goats, punished for their disobedience. All the participants nodded in silence. These were not tales, allegories: it was their reality. Those people had lived in a world where magic still exists; where mutation is a rational, even necessary process. This session reminded me of Ovid and his Metamorphoses: the invisible in ambush, transformation as the only possible horizon. In the background, the enslavement and domination of women’s bodies.

METAMORPHOSES
Based on The Metamorphoses by Ovid
Directed by Luca Giacomoni
Translation and dramaturgy Sarah Di Bella
With Diariatou Basse, Léna Dangreaux, Laëtitia Eïdo, Clémence Josseau, Hadassah Njengue, Sylvie Togba
Research and choice of music Eugenie De Mey
Singing Eugenie De Mey and Claire Trouilloud (alternating)
Assistant Director Giuseppina Comito
In collaboration with Nadine Naous
Lighting design Bartolo Filippone

Production Why Theatre / In partnership with La Maison des Femmes de Saint-Denis / With the support of City of Paris, Meyer Foundation for Cultural and Artistic Development, Humanités, Digital et Numérique Foundation, L’Accompagnatrice Foundation, Les Ailes Foundation, Berger-Levrault Foundation, Adami and Spedidam / With the support of the integration programme of the École du Théâtre National de Bretagne / Creative residencies at Studio Théâtre (Stains), Gare au Théâtre (Vitry) and Théâtre de la Tempête (Paris).

Duration : 1h

When I start a new creation, I first of all look for the right soil: where do the soldier Woyzeck or the brothers Karamazov live today? Who can understand – not in an intellectual way, but through direct knowledge – the trajectory of Agamemnon or Ophelia? For Hamlet, I went to meet people who have had so-called ‘psychotic’ experiences: understanding of voices, hallucinations, perceptual disturbances, memory loss. As the invisible is the central theme of the play, I needed to bring together a team that was sensitive to this subject.

In Shakespeare’s work, there is a clear indication of the meaning of the theatrical act. Like therapy for the treatment of the phantom limb, illusion awakens memory – a formidable force acting on the present – and brings out the truth. So, in perfect baroque style, I chose to show the whole of the theatrical machinery: the lights, the walls, the costume changes, the training and the inevitable mistakes – as well as myself, the stage director, directing the actors in front of the audience. The artifice is on view, disturbing, in the strength of its reality.

HAMLET
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Luca Giacomoni
Translation Jean-Michel Déprats
Dramaturgy Sarah Di Bella
With Olivier Constant, Laure Darras, Valérie Dréville, Élodie Franques, Tarik Kariouh, Nathalie Morazin, Serge Nail, Vicente Olivier, Édouard Penaud, Fabrice Pesle, Louis Plesse, Quentin Vernede
Assistant directors Paola Pelagalli, Leïla Blier
In collaboration with Agnès Adam and Giuseppina Comito
Knife dance Davide Monaco
Costumes Cécile Laborda
Stage objects Jacopo Leone
Lighting design Bartolo Filippone

Production Why Theatre / In partnership with the GHU Paris Psychiatry and Neurosciences / Co-production by Monfort Théâtre (Paris) and Festival d’Automne à Paris / With the support of Île-de-France Region, City of Paris, DRAC Île-de-France, Meyer Foundation for Cultural and Artistic Development, Fondation de France, Humanités, Digital et Numérique Foundation, L’Accompagnatrice Foundation / With the participation of the Jeune Théâtre National (Paris) / Creative residencies at Nouveau Gare au Théâtre (Vitry-sur-Seine), at Monfort Théâtre (Paris), at Le Préau, CDN de Normandie-Vire, at La Villette (Paris), at Carreau du Temple (Paris), at T2G – Théâtre de Gennevilliers CDN, at Ménagerie de Verre (Paris)

Duration : 2h15

In spite of efforts, theatre very seldom leaves the confines of its own circle, and most of the time it speaks the language of a circle of insiders. Yet play, ritual and storytelling are as necessary to every human being as food and sleep. With Woyzeck – ‘first proletarian on a theatre stage’ – we want to bring the theatrical act to people in migration, just as one would offer shelter or medical care. Constructed as a contemporary tragedy, each performance includes the creation of an amateur choir, chosen from among the inhabitants, in dialogue with the artists.

Long considered as a fragmented piece of writing, anticipating the open forms of contemporary drama, Woyzeck actually presents a coherent narrative: that of a feminicide. A narrative that sheds light on the chain reactions leading to the killing of a woman: a voice whispers to Woyzeck that he must “bleed the bitch” and, like a puppet guided by invisible threads, he kills Marie with knives. Through an organic and non-linear composition, Büchner offers us a reflection on the nature of evil and our relationship with the invisible.

Michael Kohlhaas offers us a close look – as in a laboratory experiment – at the workings of the human being. How can an honest man, deeply motivated by a desire for justice, become – through a combination of external circumstances – the instigator of brutal actions? And how does he manage to align so many people with his cause? In Kleist’s world, the human being is an unstable, non-linear, unpredictable system. A balance built on the brink of chaos.

The famous expression ‘butterfly effect’ has instilled in our imagination the possibility that a small and seemingly insignificant flap of the wings can have devastating effects. In Kohlhaas, a series of actions leading to the destruction of a city is set in motion by the impudent gesture of a local lord, as arbitrary as a throw of the dice. The author invites us to ask: can a single action determine the future in an unpredictable way? And above all, how does a human feeling – according to a precise geometry of passions – turn into its opposite?

KOHLHAAS
Study on Michel Kohlhaas by Heinrich von Kleist
Director / Luca Giacomoni
Translation / Georges La Flize
Assistant Director / Violaine Bougy
Costumes / Cécile Laborda
Lighting design / Bartolo Filippone
Production in progress