This is a worthwhile piece that is well executed
Presented by: Édouard Louis & Thomas Ostermeier, Schaubühne Berlin & Théâtre de la Ville Paris Reviewed: 8 March, 2024
One of the joys of the Adelaide Festival is the truly international diversity of its offerings, bringing perspectives and cultures from around the world to our small city.
Qui a tué mon père (Who killed my father) provides a uniquely French production, not only because of the language (with English surtitles) but also the particularly francophone cultural perspective of changing politics and institutional challenges.
Writer and performer, Édouard Louis holds the stage for 90 minutes telling the story of his father and surrounding family in the late 90s to early 2000s. With a history of alcohol abuse, domestic violence and poverty, the patriarch is unique in his perspective of the world as well as in his relationships with his family, particularly his young gay son.
Video imagery (by Sébastien Dupouey and Marie Sanchez) forms a backdrop that is continuously moving and taking us on a literal journey through his childhood and into adulthood with a complex father-son relationship. Use of various microphones around the stage to amplify Louis’ storytelling gives a sense of a philosophical history lecture, a biography retold.
Louis’ storytelling has an intensity to keep attention while also a vulnerability and a child-like perspective. The causes for his father’s death are teased out of moments in time, leaving all characters a potential suspect or contributor. It is the third act however that leads us astray. While most of the production is an intimate domestic story, the third act shifts the focus to the political culpability in a broken socialist system, highlighting the French leaders and their role in health and welfare management. While not a complete departure from the mystery and intrigue of the story, this shift from domestic to political focus jolts in a way that diminishes from the intimacy in the writing, removing the personal aspect that hooks the audience at the beginning.
While this is a worthwhile piece that is well executed, the results are seemingly disjointed in its juxtaposition of two philosophical ideas in one story.
Reviewed by Hayley Horton
Photo credit: Roy VanDerVegt
Venue: Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre
Season: ended
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