two pieces that question our relationship with the living

Frail tree trunks painted on a large white canvas populate the back of the stage. In front of this mysterious landscape, half a dozen actors rehearse Barks, forest thrillerby Alice Carré. “I wrote this play based on my family history,” confides the playwright. When our father died, we inherited ten hectares of woods in Auvergne. This is how I discovered the world of logging.”

Very quickly, she decided to portray the tensions that agitate this environment and pit the supporters of intensive exploitation against the protectors of the forests. “I want to make several points of view heard, without imposing an opinion. Because in my play, as in real life, ecology is not dissociated from economic and social issues. In Auvergne, the forestry sector and wood exploitation represent numerous jobs. We can’t stop everything at once. It’s this complexity that I’m trying to illuminate.”

Play in the forest

A desire for nuance that also drives Frédéric Ferrer. A trained geographer and man of the theater, for twenty years he has been staging the climate crisis which, he recalls, “did not exist in Molière’s time. It is therefore necessary for the playwrights of the 21st century to invent new theatrical forms which allow us to explore the issues at stake.

To imagine his new show entitled How Nicole lost everythingthe author started from a real public debate around the opening of a lithium mine in Allier. “In my theater, which is always documented, the activist voice is heard in the same way as that of the elected official or the industrialist, so that the public forms its own opinion.” Light and mobile shapes, The maps by Frédéric Ferrer, full of humor, are programmed throughout France, on major national stages as well as in community halls, and often followed by debates.

Alice Carré hopes the same will be true for performances of her play . The author has just launched a series of workshops in Évreux (Eure) with three professional landscape design baccalaureate classes. His plan for next spring? Thanks to the signage work carried out by these high school students in the Évreux forest, being able to play there Barks while wandering. A sensory experience at the heart of life.