CE QU’IL FAUT DIRE / WHAT MUST BE SAID
CATHERINE VRIGNAUD COHEN
Three Texts by Léonora Miano
A performance that explores the relationship between the West and Africa through incisive, uncompromising writing.
“How can one fraternize in a country where the heroes of some are the oppressors of others?” What does it mean to be “white” or “black”? Who decided that “Africa” would be called so? What Must Be Said is a direct, uncompromising voice that goes to the heart of the matter: the relationship between the West and Africa, the relationship to one’s skin color, the relationship to others.
In What Must Be Said, actress Karine Pedurand and musician Triinu bring to life three texts by Léonora Miano, an author known for her work against colonialism and racism. These texts – La question blanche, Le fond des choses, and La fin des fins – unpack the narratives inherited from colonization and the silences of exile. On a minimalist stage, voice and music intertwine in a theatre-concert that is at once delicate and powerful.
Far from conventional discourse, Catherine Vrignaud Cohen’s What Must Be Said interrogates otherness, deconstructs mythologies, and evokes the power of liberated speech, capable of awakening our memories and opening new horizons.
The press talks about it :
‘What a text this is for the spoken word, Léonora Miano! The language of the Franco-Cameroonian author is transposed onto the stage by Catherine Vrignaud Cohen in a simple but no less effective gesture.’ Kilian Orain – Télérama
