Qui a tué mon père
In an interview with De Volkskrant, Édouard Louis said: 'In an environment where reading was considered a pointless and effeminate pastime, school trips to plays were the only way to get into contact with stories.' He now plays himself on stage in Qui a tué mon père.
Start time 19:30
Duration 90 min
Location Rabozaal
Language French with Dutch and English surtitles
Dutch premiere
With In Gesprek with Thomas Ostermeier on 19 February (language: English)
With his autobiographical stories, Louis established himself at a young age as an essential voice in contemporary literature, who's in direct contact with reality. He deciphers the mechanisms of domination and social violence and talks about the reinvention of himself based on his own family experiences. That reinvention also plays an important role in Qui a tué mon père.
The director is none other than Thomas Ostermeier, who previously staged Im Herzen der Gewalt (which can also be seen during Brandhaarden) by Édouard Louis. After that, Ostermeier went a step further by really starting a dialogue with the writer and staging him in his own role. -|-Qui a tué mon père is an indignant portrait in which anger and tenderness are mixed and in which Louis delves into the intimate contradictions of a broken man. Hearing this text through the mouth of the author himself, seeing him dance and hearing him sharing his childhood memories, magnifies its meaning and impact tenfold. The performance touches the heart deeply. It is the first time that Louis is on stage to interpret his own work.
Qui a tué mon père premiered at Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, as a co-production with Ostermeier's own Schaubühne, and is a powerful illustration of the collaboration between the two houses.
After the performance on 19 February
In Gesprek with Thomas Ostermeier
In Gesprek is a returning programme from ITA on Friday nights. Come and think, listen and talk after the performance.
After the performance our moderator will talk to director Thomas Ostermeier and the audience. Taking Qui a tué mon père as a starting point, we invite the audience and our guest to explore the theme further, to exchange experiences and to ask questions of each other.
In the press
‘Edouard Louis joue sa vie sur scène. Standing ovation.’ - L’Obs
‘A serious political indictment while being a beautiful monument to his father at the same time.’ - De Volkskrant on the novel ★★★★
‘Louis juxtaposes violent tantrums and cruelty with touching moments that portray how sensitive this macho man was, and how much he loved his son.’ - De Volkskrant on the novel ★★★★
Credits
based on the book by Édouard Louis
directed by Thomas Ostermeier
with Édouard Louis
video Sebastien Dupouey, Marie Sanchez
stage design Nina Wetzel
costumes Caroline Tavernier
music Sylvain Jacques
dramaturgy Florian Borchmeyer, Elisa Leroy
production Elisa Leroy, Anne Arnz
lighting Erich Schneider
co-production with Théâtre de la Ville Paris
credits photo Jean-Louis Fernandez
10th edition
Brandhaarden 2022
Brandhaarden is an international theatre festival that brings performances by notable theatre makers from abroad to Amsterdam. The festival offers a unique overview of one creator, house, region or theme. Previous editions have put the spotlight on directors such as Katie Mitchell, Milo Rau and the Rimini Protokoll collective, and city theatres such as Münchner Kammerspiele, Volksbühne Berlin and Peter Brook's Théâtre Bouffes du Nord. In 2020, the festival focused for the first time on one region, Southern Europe, and showed notable dance and theatre productions from Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.
The tenth edition of the ITA Festival, from 19 February to 3 March, focuses on the work of one of the greatest French literary sensations of the moment: Édouard Louis.
Édouard Louis
Ivo van Hove: “Édouard Louis is not only the premier French writer of a new generation, he is also a global phenomenon. His work has touched a nerve around the world. As a young gay man who grew up in the forgotten working class of the impoverished industrial North of France, he's intimately familiar with what poverty and exclusion mean. Édouard Louis doesn't want to describe the world, he wants to change it. His passionate, engaging work is both necessary and urgent.”
With Covid Admission Ticket
To visit this performance you need a valid COVID admission ticket. This can be a negative test result, a vaccination certificate or proof that you have recovered from corona (proof of recovery). You must convert one of these into a QR code in the CoronaCheck app or a print via CoronaCheck.nl. Only then will you have a valid COVID admission ticket.