« Many things are terrible, but of all of them, the most terrible is man. » Sophocles

In 2020, during the pandemic, theatre was defined as a ‘non-essential activity’. In France, Europe and just about everywhere else in the world, governments have agreed on this position: non-essential. The question is more than legitimate: is the theatrical act still necessary to the construction of an open and democratic society? Or are we, as dramatic artists, playing the role of musicians who entertain the passengers in first class while the ship sinks?

One way of answering this question would be to deconstruct the theatrical device from its foundations, confronting it with its limits and its responsibilities. Going to the roots of this secular rite and placing it – without artifice, without machinery – where the future of living together is at stake. To confront it with the brutality of reality, stripping it of the comfort of a theatre, and to relearn – through the school of sensitive relationships that theatre offers us – the value of ‘politics’ in the Greek sense of the term: that which binds us together.

ANTIGONE’S GESTURE
A research project by Luca Giacomoni

Artistic team Tatiana Grishko, Yadulllah Mousawi, Wabinlé Nabié, Loick Ngoukou, Arman Saribekyan, Sultan Ulutas Alopé and Akiko Veaux

In collaboration with Sarah Brunel, Jule Japhet, Sébastien Puech and Linda Souakria

Scientific team Selma Benkhelifa, lawyer at the Brussels Bar; Rachel Brahy, doctor in political and social sciences at ULiège; Grégory Delaplace, director of studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études; Filippo Furri, fellow of the Institut Convergences Migrations; Pierre Judet de La Combe, director of studies at the EHESS; Carolina Kobelinsky, research fellow at the CNRS; Taina Tervonen, freelance journalist.

Production Centre for philosophical and theatrical research Hagia Sophia / In coproduction with Institut du Monde Arabe, Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration, La Nef, Artavism, Fondation Humanités, Digital et Numérique, Ville de Paris and Refugee Week Malta / With the support of Théâtre du Châtelet, CENTQUATRE Paris, CASP, Hangar Teatri, Agency of Artists in Exile, Salvation Army, France Terre d’asile and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.