La Lettre de Milo Rau

Two performers, one letter to read… and everything goes off the rails: a mischievously corrosive theatre that plays with our expectations and the rules of the game. Milo Rau, a leading figure of European theatre, devises an inventive and playful stage form.

Drawing on the family histories of two young artists from his company, he explores those tiny or decisive events that send a life off on a different course. On a deliberately bare stage, it all begins with the reading of a letter. Very quickly, the play spills over.

The two performers replay scenes, slip into roles, question their own memories of theatre, summoning Joan of Arc as well as Chekhov's The Seagull. The boundaries between fiction and reality constantly blur, to the point of bringing the dead themselves back through recorded voices.

Funny and sensitive, the piece is built on a constant dialogue with the audience. The talent of the two performers and their ability to play with the real make this show a true manifesto for popular theatre.