ALTHEA or THE BURNED WOOD

Created in 2022, on August 6th, 7th, 9th, and 11th,
during the 24èmes Rencontres Internationales de Théâtre en Corse – l’Aria
(24^th International Theater Meetings in Corsica – Aria)

Inspired by the Greek myth of Althea, queen of Calydon, wife of Oeneas and mother of Meleager and Deianira, this text, especially written for the 2022 International Theater Meeting in Corsica – Aria, is a weaving of feminine voices, dating back to several generations. Their voices sometimes intertwine and some other times collide.

Their timeless voices denounce as they speak, each in its own style, burned existences and fading lives, before even they blossomed. This story, carried to the Corsican mountains, looks with one eye at the great ancient tragedies, and with the other at the intimate dramas of anonymous families where catastrophe explodes, suffocated by the fear of reprisals and the unconceivable weariness of lifelessness and oppression.

That same tension nourishes the characters and plot. We play death again and again to breathe life on stage. Besides, the action starts with a funeral…