Esprit Vieille

Can we explore age independently of chronologies and any sense of linearity? How might we envision a political figure of “the old maid”? This is the challenge taken up by Éléonore Barrault in a production that teaches us to observe and listen to the process of aging, but also to conceive of the stage as a space for reinvention—a special place where generations can coexist and imaginations can be reshaped. In particular, the artists create a curtain of wrinkles and white hair to reveal the different layers of the experience of this old age yet to come. By cultivating the “old woman’s spirit,” with the collaboration of the creative team from the TnS school, Éléonore Barrault rejects any call to maintain a safe distance, choosing instead to draw as close as possible to the passage of time and the transformations it wrought on our bodies and our stories.