Médée/s Louise Vignaud

Louise Vignaud likes to take on great tragic figures and confront them with our present. With Médée/s, she explores infanticide through the figure of Medea and the personal, social, and political realities that she continues to reveal. Like a puzzle gradually coming together, the narrative unfolds in fragments, in a fragmented language where words attempt to capture the unspeakable.

Actress, singer, and performer Rachida Brakni gives voice to a mother on the brink of despair. Her story engages in dialogue with that of Medea by Euripides, as well as with the words of a lawyer and a psychiatrist inspired by Sofia Fischer’s documentary Mothers Sentenced to Life (2024). How does a mother come to contemplate the unthinkable? The performance dissects this question through words, their flaws, and their silences.

On stage, cellist Orane Duclos accompanies this sensitive journey with her musical compositions, while drawings open up mental escape routes. Straddling ancient myth and contemporary experience, Médée/s challenges our perceptions of motherhood, guilt, and the possibility of regaining a foothold in the world through the power of speech.