"FACING THE SEA, FOR TEARS TO TURN INTO LAUGHTER"

Men and women facing the sea. They watch, talk to that space at once real and fictional, to that coastal culture which, from Lebanon or Tunisia, places people in front of this immensity that is celebrated, cursed, or dreamt... The sea we're watching, it's also those rows of spectators to whom we're talking without seeing them. Facing the sea, for tears to turn into laughter is the story of a man, both Tunisian and French, who tells of his complex identity. It is Radhouane El Meddeb's decision to go to Tunisia to create, with those who took part in the revolution, but also those who look with distrust at him who abandoned his homeland. To come back, to say the tempest of emotions he feels, to dance his anger at a country that abandons the poor to the extremists, such is the path the choreographer has chosen. Revealing a vision of modern Tunisia struggling with its ambiguous history, the show is about personal, but also universal, mourning. In the almost empty space of the stage, the presence of the text and of music tells of the way out that is water. Whether it be at the end of a long work day or before making a decision, it remains the place one contemplates, the place one talks to and to which one reveals its worries, uncertainties, and dreams of politics and absolute.

Tackling questions about exile, absence, and solitude, the choreographer felt the visceral need to explore his double culture and the rupture at its heart by creating Facing the sea, for tears to turn into laughter with Tunisian artists. Radhouane El Meddeb will be appearing for the first time at the Festival d'Avignon.

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production La Compagnie de SOI coproduction Festival d’Avignon, TANDEM - Scène Nationale / Arras-Douai, Scène Nationale d’Albi, La Villette - Paris, Arsenal, Cité Musicale de Metz, La Briqueterie - Centre de Développement Chorégraphique du Val-de-Marne, Théâtre Jean Vilar - Vitry-sur-Seine with the support of Institut Français de Tunis, Groupe Caisse des Dépôts, Région Ile-de-France, Institut Français - Théâtre Export, Conseil départemental du Val-de-Marne residencies at Ballet du Nord / Centre Chorégraphique National de Roubaix Nord-Pas-de-Calais and TANDEM - Scène Nationale / Arras-Douai
 

La compagnie de SOI is subsidized by DRAC Île-de-france / Ministry of culture and communication.