L’Île d’Or

By

Théâtre du Soleil

Performed by

Shaghayegh Beheshti, Duccio Bellugi-Vannuccini, Georges Bigot, Aline Borsari, Sébastien Brottet-Michel, Juliana Carneiro da Cunha, Hélène Cinque, Marie-Jasmine Cocito, Eve Doe Bruce, Maurice Durozier, Man Waï Fok, Farid Gul Ahmad, Sayed Ahmad Hashimi, Samir Abdul Jabbar Saed, Martial Jacques, Dominique Jambert, Judit Jancso, Shafiq Kohi, Agustin Letelier, Ya-Hui Liang, Vincent Mangado, Andréa Marchant, Julia Marini, Alice Milléquant, Taher Mohd Akbar, Nirupama Nityanandan, Miguel Nogueira da Gama, Seietsu Onochi, Vijayan Panikkaveetil, Reza Ghulam Rajabi, Omid Rawendah, Xevi Ribas, Arman Saribekyan, Thérèse Spirli

A collective creation by the Théâtre du Soleil
in harmony with Hélène Cixous
directed by Ariane Mnouchkine
Music by Jean-Jacques Lemêtre

Look, an island!
In 2011, Les Naufragés du Fol Espoir dazzled us with their explosive humanism. Ariane Mnouchkine and the Théâtre du Soleil company are back with us for another long-haul trip. Destination: the shores of a paradise waiting to be invented…

Ariane Mnouchkine won the prestigious Kyoto Prize in November 2019, and is more than ever a living treasure of French theatre. With the seventy members of her company at her side, and accompanied by writer Hélène Cixous and musician Jean-Jacques Lemêtre, this illustrious director is setting off on a new adventure into theatre for the people. A performance for a wide audience, accessible to everyone, for the benefit of all, which now takes us to the shores of a Japanese island.

This is not fiction.
Does the Île d’Or really exist? Where is it? This time, it is in Japanese waters. Yes, it does exist.  And this is not the first time. It already existed (and will exist again) more than once in our long saga, Astres et Désastres.
Every time the world is about to self-destruct, a joyous (and not in the least bit crazy) army of people appears to keep hope alive, rushing around to find an ark or a ship. We’re going to the island, it looks like an exile, it’s a place of refuge and of new beginnings. (…)
It really is called the Île d’Or – the Island of Gold. But what is gold? For our characters fighting for happiness, it is not the gold found in mines or banks. It is the gold of hospitality – innocent gold, not gold in a safe – the gold of feasting on friendship, the good kind of gold that we will soon use for the Festival of Healing, to rekindle intelligence. Hélène Cixous

Hosted by 

in collaboration with Radiant-Bellevue, les Célestins – Théâtre de Lyon, le Toboggan – Décines-Charpieu, le Théâtre de la Renaissance – Oullins Lyon Métropole, les Nuits de Fourvière, le Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse et La Comédie de Saint-Étienne – Centre dramatique national.