La Grande Ourse | THEATER DER WELT

In the organizer's words:

An insignificance turns a woman into a strong bear. A play about anger, as self-empowerment against control and institutional violence.

A woman throws a candy wrapper on the floor. That's enough. A police check, an arrest, a night in custody. The accusation is banal, the consequence is not. Her body is restrained, questioned, reduced. Order is enforced. La Grande Ourse begins where state power becomes commonplace. The author Penda Diouf has her roots in Senegal and the Ivory Coast. Living in France, she does not write a metaphor for violence, she describes its mechanisms: Surveillance, discipline, shaming, carried out on a woman. She is observed and evaluated. The dense text allows no distance, it remains close to the body, to the voice. Diouf's writing begins where language often fails: with shame, anger, loss of control. In the play, the woman begins to hear what lies beneath the surface. The body changes. The rage takes shape. The woman becomes a big bear.

Penda Diouf is one of the most haunting voices in young French drama. In her play, she combines the political present with mythical thinking. Police violence, surveillance, institutional racism and misogyny are not abstract concepts, but concrete experiences of a body that is humiliated. Diouf's literary rage is not destructive here, but productive. It is energy, orientation and protection. France has one of the most present police systems in Europe. At the same time, debates about police violence, institutional racism and state control have been a central part of public debate for years.

Staged by Anthony Thibault, the text unfolds in a reduced space, moving from everyday life into a fairytale-like narrative. In it, the woman is always accompanied by a griot, the West African bearer of bad news, who comments on what is happening. Thibault and Diouf founded the label "Jeunes textes en liberté" in France, which promotes contemporary theater texts. They are committed to diversity and parity in the theater.

Venue: Spinnbau - large stage
Introduction: 30 minutes before the start of each performance
Duration: 1 h 20 min
Information: In French with German and English surtitles

All further information at: https://www.theaterderwelt.de/programm/

A festival of the German Centre of the International Theatre Institute e.V.
Organized by Chemnitz Theatres, the Festival Academy Brussels and the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 GmbH.

Price information:

Tickets at: theaterderwelt.de/la-grande-ourse | 35% discount with festival pass. More information at: theaterderwelt.de/service/tickets