La Lettre de Milo Rau

Two performers, a letter to read… and everything goes awry: a mischievously corrosive theatre that plays with our expectations and the rules of the game. Milo Rau, a major figure in European theatre, imagines an inventive and facetious stage form.

Based on the family histories of two young artists from his troupe, he explores those tiny or decisive events that make a life take a different turn. On a deliberately stripped-down stage, everything begins with the reading of a letter. Very quickly, the performance overflows.

The two actors re-enact scenes, slip into roles, question their own theatrical memories, summoning Joan of Arc as well as Chekhov's The Seagull. The boundaries between fiction and reality constantly blur, even bringing forth the dead themselves through recorded voices.

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