La Maladie de la mort
Featuring an acclaimed cast of screen and stage actors, Marguerite Duras’s psychological thriller is given a radical stage reworking by iconoclastic British director Katie Mitchell.
Katie Mitchell, one of the world’s most influential and iconoclastic theatre makers, presents her own uncompromising stage adaptation of the provocative novella by Marguerite Duras.
Duras’s 1982 psychological thriller focuses on an unnamed man who hires a woman to spend several weeks with him in a hotel by the sea, hoping to experience love. She may only visit him at night, and cannot speak to him unless invited to.
This radical reworking reveals the inner landscapes of both characters in a live cinema and theatre experience. It combines a theatre production performed live, with a film generated and edited in real time, and projected on a large screen above the set.
British director Katie Mitchell has reshaped the culture of theatre in a body of radical work across Europe since the 1990s. She creates minutely observed, emotionally intense productions that work on the mind long after they’ve been seen, and has long explored the intersection between theatre and film. La Maladie de la mort is her first production for Paris’s Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, resident company at the 2018 International Festival, and is produced by an international creative team from Britain, France, Iceland and Germany.
Featuring an acclaimed cast from stage and screen, the woman is played by French film, television and stage actor Laetitia Dosch (Jeune Femme), who has been hailed as France's answer to Greta Gerwig, with British actor Nick Fletcher as the man. Eminent French stage and screen actor Irène Jacob, star of films including Au revoir les enfants and Three Colours: Red, is the narrator. Duras’s novella is adapted by acclaimed playwright Alice Birch, recently lauded for her screenplay for the feature film Lady Macbeth. La Maladie de la mort is part of the residency of the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord at the 2018 International Festival.
★★★★ The Herald
★★★★ 'a rich, layered piece' What's On Stage
Suitable for adults only. Contains scenes of nudity, sexual and pornographic imagery. If you need more information please contact us.
Katie Mitchell, British theatre's true auteurThe Guardian
Freely adapted after the story by Marguerite Duras
Katie Mitchell Director
Alice Birch Adaptation
Lily McLeish Associate director
Grant Gee Video director
Alex Eales Set and costume designer
Paul Clark Composer
Donato Wharton Sound designer
Ingi Bekk Video designer
Ellie Thompson Video design collaboration
Anthony Doran Lighting designer
Cast
Laetitia Dosch The Woman
Nick Fletcher The Man
Irène Jacob Narrator
Nadja Krüger, Sebastian Pircher & Christin Wilke Camera operators
A co-production between Edinburgh International Festival, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Théâtre de la Ville – Paris, Le Théâtre de Liège, MC2:Grenoble, Barbican / London, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, Teatro di Roma-Teatro Nazionale, Teatro Stabile di Torino - Teatro Nazionale, Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione, Fondazione Teatro Metastasio – Prato, TANDEM scène nationale. In collaboration with Mayhem. Thanks to the Comédie-Française.
Production C.I.C.T. – Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
More information about some of the artists:
Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram