La Semaine du Récit

For this 3rd edition, alongside our dear friends at L’Astronef, the Gena collective offers a rich and varied program. A wealth of voices, forms of writing, journeys and languages powerfully and deftly explore questions of memory, family stories, journeys, family ties... They tell of identities we seek or carry, and of what remains when stories have been passed on, forgotten or erased.

Over several days, come and discover an event where the art of telling the world’s stories becomes an artistic laboratory, a place to meet and listen, and a moment of sharing. Combining theater, storytelling and live spoken word, this week immerses you in intimate, engaged and collective stories—stories that move us, bring us together and make us think.

Wednesday 4 at 19h open mic

Culture lovers, curious minds and artists, we are delighted to invite you to the season’s first open-mic evening. The evening will be hosted by one or more artists associated with Théâtre de L’Astronef, who will share theatrical excerpts, performances or readings with you, immersing you in the world of life stories!

The evening will be hosted by one or more artists associated with Théâtre de L’Astronef, who will share theatrical excerpts, performances or readings with you, immersing you in the world of life stories!

Program:

An inspiring introduction: artists associated with the theater will share theatrical excerpts, performances or readings with you, immersing you in the world of a theme.

An open mic for everyone: you have 10 minutes to present your creation. Music, dance, theater, slam poetry... all forms of expression are welcome

Admission is free and open to everyone! Invite your friends and come in large numbers to support our artists.

Friday 6 at 20h Paco, a Mediterranean Odyssey

The memory of origins

A one-person show exploring the memory of origins.

We follow Lucas, a grandson tracing the footsteps of his grandfather Paco, an Andalusian Republican fisherman. We travel through Andalusia, Algeria and then France, asking what remains at the end of a hard-lived life? What do we inherit from our ancestors?

Mixing his own memories with his grandfather’s poems, set to music by his father, Lucas speaks to pay tribute to what defies time.

Theater by Cie La Place du Soleil, duration 1h.

Saturday 7 at 20h Chavirer de bord

Portrait of a young woman

Seeking answers about her sister’s death, a young woman undergoes a radical transformation that turns the personal into a political question, and makes collective action a condition of her survival.

Camille loses her sister under mysterious circumstances. As a conventional investigation is doomed to fail, activism and the development of political awareness open a path toward meaning and understanding in the wake of the shock. The story takes us from one scene to another, from one emotion to another, with the awareness that, in an absurd experience, suffering is individual.

In the movement of revolt, it becomes collective.

Theater for ages 15 and up, by Cie Les Passages, duration 1h25

Tuesday 10 at 19h Ce qui nous mijote

Forgiveness and its impossibility

Following the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, a family is divided between France and Anatolia. In a kitchen, three sisters reunite and share memories marked by their father’s absence and past violence.

The arrival of Emrah, their half-brother from Turkey, raises questions of family ties, transmission and memory. As they prepare a meal, gestures, silences and stories intertwine. The show revolves around three Anatolian rituals—the ablution, the Ederlezi festival and cooking—combining theater, dance and performance. This hybrid form explores forgiveness and its impossibility, connecting the intimate experience of a family trying to reunite with the political history that runs through it. Theater, work-in-progress presentation, for ages 10 and up, duration 1h20.

Tuesday 10 at 20h30 Una storia d'emigrante

Setting out on the road to a new life

We are talking about History. The real, grand History. This is a story, a life story, or at least a part of one, read and told by three actors at lecterns, with suitcases. This journey, which many Italians had to make at the time, will be a defining and decisive one for Gaetano. He will meet Luigi and Lila, who will become his traveling companions. The three of them will experience this very special time together. The story is accompanied by traditional Sicilian songs. Let’s set off on the road to a new life.

Gaetano lives in Sicily with his wife and two sons. The Second World War has just ended, work is scarce, money is scarce too, and Gaetano’s wife Luciana is seriously ill. Gaetano makes a decision: he will leave for France. He will find work and bring his family over so he can care for his wife and give them a gentler life. But leaving Italy at that time is not so simple: border checks, militia still on the move… The only solution is to go on foot, through the mountains.

Gaetano sets out. It will be a long journey, full of uncertainty and danger, but also of wonderful encounters…Until …France.

Theater for ages 12 and up

Wednesday 11 at 20h Cyparis

The last living object to survive

Cyparis, or The Last Living Object to Survive in the Silent City of Death, is a sensory immersion in a historical story

It is 1902, in Saint-Pierre, Martinique, a city that shines. The “Little Paris of the Antilles,” they called it. The dresses are clean, the cafés are