Lacrima

Written and directed by Caroline Guiela Nguyen

In French, Tamil, English, sign language, surtitled

Estimated length: 2 hrs. 45 min.

9 January – 6 February

Berthier 17^e

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with Dan Artus, Dinah Bellity, Natasha Cashman, Michèle Goddet, Charles Vinoth Irudhayaraj, Anaele Jan Kerguistel, Maud Le Grevellec, Liliane Lipau, Nanii, Rajarajeswari Parisot, Vasanth Selvam
and video Nadia Bourgeois, Charles Schera, Fleur Sulmont
with the voices of Louise Marcia Blévins, Béatrice Dedieu, David Geselson, Kathy Packianathan, Jessica Savage-Hanford

Since her start, Guiela Nguyen has shown how the wounds that we are composed of tell long-running histories that are woven around us. Lacrima starts with a wedding dress, the one that the princess of England ordered in 2025 from a famous fashion house. From France to India, this choral performance traces all the hands that created the dress over the eight months and thousands of hours of work needed to finish it. Marion, the head tailor on Rue Saint-Honoré, Thérèse, a lacemaker in Alençon, Abdul, an embroiderer in Mumbai, present the power of their exceptional expertise that comes from a long tradition. In these workshops where men and women break their backs working, the performance asks at each moment: in the legacy we inherit, what differentiates the things that destroy us from the things that protect us?

Out of subscription: sales open on Tuesday 26 November

By subscribing: all shows are open for sale now!

Estimated length: 2 hrs. 45 min.

Tuesday to Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 3pm
no performances on Mondays and Sundays 12 and 26 January

in French with English surtitles on Fridays 10, 17, 24 and 31 January

In French, Tamil, English, sign language, surtitled

Previews on 7 and 8 January

Happy Thursday on Thursdays 16, 23, 30 January and 6 February

artistic collaboration Paola Secret
set design Alice Duchange
costumes Benjamin Moreau
lighting Mathilde Chamoux, Jérémie Papin
sound Antoine Richard
in collaboration with Thibaut Farineau
original music Jean-Baptiste Cognet, Teddy Gauliat-Pitois, Antoine Richard
video Jérémie Scheidler
motion design Marina Masquelier
hairstyles, hairpieces, make-up Émilie Vuez
casting Lola Diane

production Théâtre national de Strasbourg
coproduction Festival TransAmériques (Montréal), Comédie de Reims - centre dramatique national, Points communs - nouvelle scène nationale de Cergy-Pontoise, Théâtres de la ville de Luxembourg, Centro Dramático Nacional (Madrid), Piccolo Teatro di Milano - Teatro d'Europa (Milan), Wiener Festwochen - Freie Republik Vienne, Théâtre de Liège, Théâtre national de Bretagne - Rennes, Festival d'Avignon, Les Hommes Approximatifs

with the support of Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, Théâtre Ouvert - centre national des dramaturgies contemporaines, Maison Jacques Copeau, musée des Beaux-arts et de la Dentelle d'Alençon and l'Atelier-Conservatoire national du Point d'Alençon, Institut Français de New Delhi, Alliance française de Mumbai

Lacrima by Caroline Guiela Nguyen, published by Actes Sud, June 2024

creation in May 2024

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Caroline Guiela Nguyen is an author, director and producer. In 2009, she founded the company Les Hommes Approximatifs, with which she created Se souvenir de Violetta (2011), Le Bal d'Emma (2013), Elle brûle (2013) and Le Chagrin (2015) at the Comédie de Valence. 2015 marked the start of her involvement with the Maison Centrale in Arles. There she collaborated with Joël Pommerat and Jean Ruimi to create Désordre d'un futur passé and Marius with prison inmates. In 2020, she directed her first film there: Les Engloutis. In 2017, she created Saigon at the Ambivalence(s) festival at the Comédie de Valence and at the 71^st Festival d'Avignon. Presented at the Ateliers Berthier in 2018 and 2019, and still touring today, the show has been performed in some fifteen countries. Fraternité, a fantastic tale, also created at the Festival d'Avignon, was presented at Les Ateliers Berthier in 2021, and is touring France and Europe. In 2022, she wrote and directed Kindheitsarchive, a drama about adoption, at the Schaubühne in Berlin, with the actors of the permanent ensemble.

She was associate artist at the Odéon from 2016 to 2023. Since September 2023, she has directed the Théâtre national de Strasbourg and its School.

Lacrima

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Biography of Caroline Guiela Nguyen