La Dame de la Mer

Presented by Le Théâtre de l'épée de bois, La Dame de la mer is one of Henrik Ibsen's most mysterious works. The action takes place in summer, on the edge of a fjord, in a house surrounded by an omnipresent nature, where Doctor Wangel lives with his two daughters, Bolette and Hilde, and his new wife, Ellida. The atmosphere is steeped in silences and unspoken words; a fragile balance seems to reign there.

Every day, Ellida makes her way to the sea in an unchanging ritual, until the return of the Stranger, a sailor to whom she became engaged ten years earlier at Brattamer Point. This love, resurfacing from the past, awakens in her, with an irrepressible force, both attraction and dread. Strikingly modern, blending the real and the supernatural, La Dame de la mer questions the power of desire, female emancipation and freedom, a source of inner rebirth. Ibsen composes a score in which the sea becomes a primitive force that draws in, reveals and transforms.

Between the magnetic pull of the open sea and the anchor of family life, Ellida must choose.

A theatrical, visual, musical and choreographic creation carried by seven performers.

Text: Henrik Ibsen

Based on the translation by Maurice Prozor

Adaptation: Géraldine Martineau

Dramaturgy: Jean-Louis Besson

Direction: Alain Batis

Set design: Sandrine Lamblin

Cast: Pierre Cachia; Anthony Davy; Laurent Desponds; Sylvian Dieuaide, Yasmine Haller or Eglantine Perreau; Emilie Lehuraux; Julie Piednoir

Choreography: Amélie Patard

Musical creation: Cyriaque Bellot

Costume design: Jean-Bernard Scotto

Lighting design and lighting operation: Nicolas Gros

Hair and make-up: Judith Scotto

Sound operation: Cyriaque Bellot, Garance Perachon-Monnier