L'Absence de père

Do we aspire only to be recognized, not to be? We don’t just want to be, we want more: the recognition that this being has value. We fight ceaselessly for this recognition. The question is what comes out of these moments when we are no longer looking for anything - neither the meaning of our existence, nor the gaze of others. When we are finally able to be in the present of our lives. Platonov, an unfinished, immense, raw play, stripped of the savoir-faire of the established playwright Chekhov was to become, a gigantic draft whose rough edges are as close to life itself, raises the question of Inheritance and Fatherlessness. What lies are we living on ? Here, Platonov rises as a critical spirit. Critical minds rarely succeed in exposing collective lies. The best example of the uncertainty of our times, Platonov is a working man, connected to the social world, who exists strongly through the eyes of others, and from whom much more is expected than he is capable of. As a result, he willingly and consciously burns up part of his vital energy, expecting nothing in return. Caught up in a chaos he cannot hope to order, he chases death like the play chases its end. Chekhov’s visionary play, set against a backdrop of social fracture, resonates. We who live with the certainty that “things can’t go on like this” in a world where the individual only seems to have value in the face of the market.

Lorraine de Sagazan

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Press reviews

To carry out Chekhov’s thesis on a youth deprived of (re)fathers, Lorraine de Sagazan aptly combines an open scenography surrounded by the audience, […] with a dramaturgy in which the actors feed their own biographies into their characters’ experiences.
Funny, touching and moving, L’Absence de père achieves the feat of rendering intact the energy of youth and its abysmal downside of despair and disillusionment.

Fabienne Arvers, Les Inrockuptibles

Times are changing, fathers are missing and their legacies are heavy to bear. Happiness is elusive. Funereal though it may be, this oration breathes life at the top of its lungs. Great art.

Joëlle Gayot, Télérama Sortir

The moods of the lower nobility, the dreams that life buries, the desires that daily life thwarts, and the boredom that wins… It’s all there in this play, whose literal title, “L’Absence de père”, is taken up by the young Lorraine de Sagazan. As with her previous creations, the director relies on the excellent actors of her company, La Brèche, to bring the subject up to date without forcing parallels with today’s world.

Jeanne Ferney, La Croix

We’re a long way from a Pirandellian style of acting, and closer to a civic involvement in the acting profession that’s spreading like a shockwave today […].This involvement includes the audience, who are regularly involved and challenged (but in no way apostrophized) in this show by Lorraine de Sagazan, as in those that preceded it, but this time with greater radicalism - a sublime end to the show, of which I’ll say nothing.
With the quadrifrontal space, Lorraine de Sagazan reaches a climax.

Jean-Pierre Thibaudat, Médiapart

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