24 Place Beaumarchais

How do you build yourself when everything around you seems to have already decided the place you will occupy? Brahim Koutari brings to the stage an intimate and political story, born from his path as a child of Échirolles who became an actor. A singular trajectory, marked by police identity checks, social pigeonholing and thwarted dreams, but also by love for his family and his neighbourhood, by faith, mutual support, humour and the decisive discovery of theatre.

Written by the author Adèle Gascuel from her own story, the text conveys a lively, direct, deeply embodied voice. It draws on the language of the neighbourhood, stand-up, rap, Moroccan Arabic, the language of prayer, but also Molière and Shakespeare.

This plurality of languages and registers creates a theatre that stays as close as possible to a life, far from clichés about the suburbs as well as from exemplary, ready-made success stories. On stage, Brahim Koutari builds everything in full view.

Places shift, memories surge up, stories are replayed.

What emerges is not only the story of a man who would have “found his place” in the theatre, but that of a more profound gesture: bringing a world, a memory, an address and a reality too often left out of frame into the theatre with oneself.

As the director Catherine Hargreaves writes, the show is not merely a testimony; it was born of an encounter, that of a trio, a way of reminding us that theatre can also become common ground.

Somewhere between life story, direct address to the audience and the power of embodiment, 24 Place Beaumarchais is a show of transmission, both salutary and uniting.

It delivers a voice that speaks of the violence of being pigeonholed, but also of the possibility of shifting the lines, of taking one's place, and of inviting others to step into the theatre in their turn. Cast: Text by Adèle Gascuel, with the complicity of Brahim Koutari.

Direction by Catherine Hargreaves, in collaboration with Adèle Gascuel. With Brahim Koutari. Set design Benjamin Lebreton. Lighting Stéphanie Daniel. Sound Patrick Jammes. Costumes Suzanne Devaux. Assistant director Angélique Heller.

Production: MC2: Maison de la Culture de Grenoble – Scène nationale, Cie les 7 sœurs. With the support of the Ville d'Échirolles, the Théâtre National Populaire de Villeurbanne and Théâtre Ouvert – Centre national des dramaturgies contemporaines.