1 min
It will be ok (1) End of Louis (“Ça ira (1) Fin de Louis”), by Joël Pommerat
Why do men revolt and take power? With It will be ok (1) End of Louis, created in 2015, Joël Pommerat explores the revolutionary process in a breath-taking show inspired by the French Revolution.
A Show Writer
Born in 1963, Joël Pommerat founded the Compagnie Louis Brouillard in 1990. Basing his creative process on devised works, he is a "show writer", both the author and director of his texts. His piece In the world (“Au monde”) (2004), performed at the Avignon festival in 2006, marked his first success.
Since then, his work has been rewarded by many Molière Awards, in particular for: Circles/Fictions (“Cercles/Fictions”) (2010), My Cold Room (“Ma Chambre froide”) (2011) and It will be ok (1) End of Louis. Pommerat was a resident artist at the Théâtre de l'Odéon and then in Nanterre-Amandiers.
A political epic
It will be ok (1), End of Louis is a political fiction inspired by the revolutionary process that took place between 1787 and 1791. It is an epic of almost 4.5 hours, performed by 14 actors who give voice to yesterday's political debates in today's costumes and language.
Far from historical re-enactment, Joël Pommerat is exploring a pivotal period for French society through a story on the human scale. Viewers are invited to immerse themselves in the frenzy of the republican agora and to experience the challenges of the birth of democracy.
The Revolution, present-tense
To create this play, the Compagnie Louis Brouillard conducted a veritable investigation into the Revolution and its protagonists, with the support of playwright Marion Boudier and historian Guillaume Mazeau.
True to his improvisation-based creative process, Joël Pommerat shared the parliamentary speeches, newspapers, memoirs, and other correspondence with his performers so they could discover the “emotional state” of the Revolution’s actors.
The play thus manages to combine the past with the present by embodying historical events as if they were contemporary.
A well-loved production
Its universal significance combined with a political context of weakened European democracies has made It will be ok (1), End of Louis a historic and internationally successful show. In 2016, the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg, the Luxembourg Grand Théâtre, the Wallon-Brussels National Theatre and the Comédie de Genève hosted the show, which then left Europe to appear in Brazil as part of the 3rd Mostra Internacional de Teatro de São Paulo and at the National Centre of Arts Ottawa in Canada.
In 2017, It will be ok (1), End of Louis was praised in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Athens (Greece) and Guanajuato (Mexico) at the Cervantino Festival.
Several works by Joël Pommerat are touring internationally with the support of the Institut français: after many performances in Romania and Spain in autumn 2018, Little Red Riding Hood is continuing its journey in April 2019 in Asia, stopping in Kaoshiung (Taiwan) and Beijing (China). For its part, Pinocchio is on tour in Canada, visiting Ottowa and Quebec, in May and June 2019.