Resembling an ancient tragedy, infused with biblical doom, Absalom, absalom! tells the story of Thomas Sutpen, a man who, after leaving everything behind, moves to a small town in Mississippi to develop an immense estate, but fails to found a family due to a background of incest and fratricide.

Behind this collapse of social revenge, Faulkner is truly talking about the fall of the American South, this quasi-mythological place in which writer Édouard Glissant points out its illegitimacy due to the combined original sins of slavery and the massacre of indigenous peoples.

As is always seen in Séverine Chavrier’s work, the theatre enters into dialogue with literature, music, dance and imagery, and in its brimming urgency, it unmasks America, showing it to be a place where dreams are destroyed rather than fulfilled.

Practical information

  • Estimated length: 5 hrs (with interval).

  • Tuesday to Saturday at 7pm, Sunday at 3pm. No performances on Mondays and Sunday 30 March. Performances with English surtitles on Saturday 29 March and Saturday 5 April