De ce coté

Dieudonné Niangouna

In his solo piece De ce côté / This Side, the Congolese theatre-maker Dieudonné Niangouna lets us meet the theatre-maker Dido, who lives in exile. He had to leave his home country during a performance after a bomb attack. Although no one was able to identify the terrorists, Dido was declared an enemy of the state for speaking openly about the ruling regime and supporting a politically engaged theatre. Since then, living in exile in Europe, he has been plagued by feelings of guilt that he cannot shake off. Quarrels and arguments with old fellow actors rule his life, as do the endless nights in the bar he bought on credit. With melancholy, irony and tenderness, Dido reflects on the question of how theater can still be made in today's violent world. What could be his point of view, his perspective - and who his audience? One day, a director shows up and offers him the lead role in his next play: La fin de la colère / The End of Wrath. This role offers Dido a golden opportunity to look back into his own past, confront his demons, bury the dead and develop a new vision of politically engaged theatre.In a sober, frontally spoken portrait, Dieudonné Niangouna portrays a man caught between two countries , between two worlds, who, with his lively and insatiable language, confuses claims to power just as much as language and its concepts themselves.

Language: French with German surtitles

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