Théâtre : La Question

Laurent Meininger directs the relentless testimony of Henri Alleg, tortured by the French Army during the Algerian War. Stanislas Nordey gives a remarkable performance, illuminating the horror and immense courage of those who resisted it.

Henri Alleg?s relentless, clinical account of the torture he endured at the hands of the French Army, following his arrest on June 12, 1957 as a militant member of the Algerian Communist Party and editor of the daily Alger républicain. Published in 1958 by Jérôme Lindon (Éditions de Minuit), attentive to its literary quality as much as to its spirit of resistance, La question was long censored by the French state, and was written on pieces of toilet paper smuggled out of prison by Henri Alleg?s wife.

The limpid, sober staging leaves room for the value of the words, which question what it means to resist, in the face of fear, pain and advancing death, in the face of unrestrained executioners who serve a power that absolves them. Stanislas Nordey fleshes out these words of resistance with surgical precision and restrained dramatic intensity.

Without pathos, the story, rooted in the cruelty of reality, calls for vigilance, while dictatorships and torturers continue to rage in every age. An act of writing and staging for today that speaks out against oblivion.

HENRI ALLEG (1921-2013)

Born in London, he moved to Algeria in 1940, joined the Communist Party and in 1951 became director of the daily "Alger républicain", which was banned in 1955. In 1957, he was arrested at the home of his friend Maurice Audin, who was tortured to death. He is the author of numerous books, including La question (1958), Prisonniers de guerre (1961), La guerre d'Algerie (1981), La grande aventure d? "Alger républicain" (1987)?

BY: HENRI ALLEG (ÉDTIONS DE MINUIT)
DIRECTED BY: LAURENT MEININGER
WITH: STANISLAS NORDEY
SET DESIGN: NICOLAS MILHÉ AND RENAUD LAGIER
LIGHTING: RENAUD LAGIER
SOUND: MIKAËL PLUNIAN

Production: Compagnie Forget me not
distribution: En votre Compagnie - Olivier Talpaert
Coproduction: Théâtre National de Strasbourg / Fonds de Dotation du Quartz, Scène Nationale de Brest / L?Archipel, scène de territoire pour le théâtre, Fouesnant-les-Glénan / Théâtre du Pays de Morlaix / Le GRRRANIT Scène Nationale de Belfort
With the support of : DRAC Bretagne / Région Bretagne / Rennes métropole
With the participation of Théâtre de la Cité, CDN Toulouse-Occitanie / Théâtre National de Bretagne