Politics, Ethics and Performance: Hélène Cixous and the Théâtre du Soleil Edited and Translated by Lara Stevens (Melbourne: re-press, 2016)

Abstract

Lara Stevens has collected and translated Hélène Cixous’s writings on and for the Théâtre du Soleil and presents them usefully in a bilingual edition, prefaced by a well-researched introduction that captures Cixous’s commitment to activist theatre and revolutionary writing.  Through compiling program notes, essays, and musings dating from 1985, when Cixous joined the French-based but international company, Stevens introduces the reader to Cixous’s process in helping develop some of the major theatrical events of the last fifty years, including the four highly metaphorical plays she entirely scripted for the company: L’Histoire terrible mais inachevée de Norodom Sihanouk,  Roi de Cambodge  (The Terrible and Still Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia, 1985); L’Indiade ou l’Inde de leurs rêves  (The Indiad, or India of Their Dreams, 1987); La Ville parjure ou le réveil  des Erinyes  [The City of Perjury,  or the Awakening of the Furies, 1994); Tambours sur la digue sous forme de pièce ancienne pour marionnettes jouée par des acteurs (Drums on the Dam, In the Form of an Ancient Puppet  Play Performed by Actors, 1999).