Édouard Louis explores his most intimate contradictions in ‘Qui a tué mon père’, directed by Thomas Ostermeier

2023-10-27 15:49:45

the writer Edward Louis will present his monologue this weekend’Who killed my father‘ (Who killed my father) as part of the Temporada Alta festival. In this proposal – directed by Thomas Ostermeier – Louis explores his innermost contradictions, playing himself on stage for the first time. As he explains, it is a “stimulating” assembly that was made in just one week and which seeks to emphasize a more “political and committed” aspect. On the other hand, he admits that his relationship with the theater is “very strong”, as it has allowed him to free himself “from the past and childhood”. The monologue can be seen on October 28 and 29 at Channel of Salt.

Louis shook French literature and consciousness by recounting the harassment and isolation he suffered as a homosexual child in an industrial village in deep France. The poverty, racism and alcoholism he had to face during his childhood – prevalent in his social class – are common themes in his work.

In 2014 he published the autobiographical novel ‘Adéu a l’Eddy Bellegueule’. Two years later he released his second novel, ‘History of Violence’, which made him a cultural phenomenon in his country. In 2018 he published his third book ‘Who killed my father’, considered a kind of manifesto against injustice and the criminalization of poverty driven by the elites.

Ostermeier already brought Louis’ second novel to the same festival six years ago, but this year he goes a step further and brings the author himself on stage to give voice to his words through a monologue that incorporates different types of scenes A portrait that moves between anger and tenderness and that did not make the writer hesitate at all when the director put the proposal on the table. All together with a certain “fear” because in the proposal he sings, dances and even dresses up.

“I had gone to the rehearsals to see how the previous play worked and, for that reason, I had confidence in him”, he maintains. In this sense, he admits that “immediately” he agreed to be the protagonist and that it was very “simple” to work together. Regarding his relationship with the theater, he points out that he had done it in high school, and that it allowed him to free himself from a family that rejected him “for being homosexual”, a situation that went away repeat at school, where he remembers that “he had no friends”.

“I was trying to be masculine, so in reality it was as if I was always playing a role,” he said. Moved by this “debt” to the theater he embarked on Ostermeier’s production based, however, on the text of his last book. “For me, writing is not a therapeutic act and I think that my life is more difficult since I started writing. It’s not personal, it’s a political act through which I write about class violence, homophobia or male domination”, he says.

Bringing ideas to a stage allows him to “go further”, because theater is more “direct” than literature, since there is a confrontation with the audience. Finally, Louis has spoken about the relationship with his father that changed “significantly” once the books were published. “At home they didn’t tolerate my sexuality and without us fighting or anything I moved away from it”, he remembers, “after the second book my father called me crying and saying he was very proud of me”.

Years later, when he opened the door of his parents’ house again, he found a completely “destroyed” man, even though he had no illness. “I was devastated by the place, I reflected on social aid to the poor, in France and around the world, and I thought: What has happened here? Who killed him?’, he concluded.

The show is co-produced by the Schaubühne and the Théatre de la Ville, and will be seen for the first time in Catalonia. So, it will be in French with Catalan subtitles. The first session will be this Saturday, October 28 and the next the following day, October 29 at Canal de Salt as part of the Temporada Alta festival.