The Civil Wars

What’s is going on with Europe? What are these times in which we're living? With “The Civil Wars” Milo Rau stages a four-voice lecture-performance about the premises of in-surrection and political engagement. Following the twists and turns of their own biographies, four actors – Karim Bel Kacem, Sara De Bosschere, Sébastien Foucault, and Johan Leysen – question the human con-dition in Europe at the start of the 21st century.
On stage is a living room. In it are four persons, above it are their faces and, on a screen, an oversized projection of the interior. Based on the story of a young Belgian who travelled to Syria to fight for the formation of a caliphate, they recall their own youth and tell of their fathers and how they managed to get away from them. They are telling stories of their youth, of their fathers, and how they managed to break away from them. They are telling stories of insanity, faith, and political conviction and they ask: What is left of it? What keeps society together in an era of radicalism, with the threat of climate wars and a general decline in values? How does a period of cultural upheaval translate into people’s private lives? And is theatre today still as suitable a political medium of reflec-tion as it was back then? The intimate stories of the four perform-ers on stage reflect politics, and in them, a European picture un-folds – a living tableau of our time.
The international press reviews came to the same conclusion: Milo Rau has created a masterpiece. "Milo Rau digs for the innermost in a person and scrapes it out. This is the way he reflects the world in detail." (Barbara Villiger-Heilig, NZZ). “The Civil Wars” is also Milo Rau’s most personal piece so far. ‘Of all the huge topics that have worried us the last few years – the Breiviks and holy warriors and right-wing populists whom we’ve bidden on stage and in front of the camera – it’s the “little things”, the private stories that have remained,’ Rau comments about the piece.
"The Civil Wars" is the first part of the "Europe Trilogy", which Rau will follow up in the 2014/15 season at Residenztheater Munich and at the Berliner Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin. The director will simultaneously work on his new film "The Congo Tri-bunal", a German-Swiss co-production on the war in Eastern Congo.

PARCOURS:
15.11 Simon Tanguy + expo Buda + Milo Rau + Francesca Grilli: € 24

BUSSES:
* Villeneuve d'Ascq 15.11 - 16:00h (Parcours Simon Tanguy)