THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS
Espace des Arts, Scène Nationale Chalon-sur-Saône
Jeune Théâtre National + Instant Mix, Jeune Théâtre Européen
The night of the millennium; the anticipation of an unknown world meets with the bitter-sweet parting with what has come before.
A heavily pregnant and tentative Nadia makes her way over to her childhood home for the first time since her mother died, to spend the night with her twin sister, Joy.
Joy, has worked very hard to maintain everything exactly as it was; a time capsule, a living memory.
The night takes a turn when they find that everything that has happened within these walls has been recorded, and can be brought back at the press of a button.
In 2020, Aria’s mother, Nadia, disappears without a trace, save for a box of memories hidden in the attic.
At the press of a button, Aria lurches through time and is faced with the secrets of her family’s past.
The Seven Daughters is a dynamic and visual show about language, memory and how we recall those who have come before us, in which music and images materialise the stories lived by the silenced women on whose shoulders we stand.
The writing of the play was inspired by the stories of women in the families of each actress, the curating of which was fascinating in itself as the links through imagery formed the questions from which the construction of the story drew life:
What is repetitively passed from one generation to another, consciously or unconsciously?
Is a memory constructed? What is the language of memory?
How do we wish to be remembered in turn?
The stories the actresses shared with me highlighted the repetitive cycles that ensnare us, despite the bravery and force of the women before us and how they met with the inexplicable fragility with which everything can be lost.
In a world where we depend on being able to communicate through technology, the possibility of miscommunication, isolation and the inability to listen is growing. I am the last generation to have lived in a time where the internet was new, where cassettes were replaced by CDs, and now by immaterial clips, none of which we can hold on to. The bulky and imposing nature of a cassette recorder and the ease with which you can record over what someone has recorded before you, was a strong initial image between the two worlds that exist simultaneously in the play.
Espace des Arts Scène Nationale
Chalon-sur-Saône
16 - 17 October 2020
Produced by Jeune Théâtre National (France) +
Instant Mix +
Scène Nationale Espace des Arts, Chalon-sur-Saône.
Performed by
Loulou Hanssen, Virginia V Hartmann, Marial Bajma-Riva
Performed on film
Charlotte Driessler, Rebecca King,
Rebekah Lumsden, Chloe-Ann Tylor
Assistant Director + Sound design: Aurélien Marquet
Lighting Design: Cyril Meroni
Music: Aurélien Marquet, Chloé-Ann Tylor, Colleen Cameron
Performed in French.
Text is available in English and French
A video of the show will be available soon.
Photo from rehearsals in Toulon-sur-Arroux,
Artistic Residence at Cie Cipango's studios
