Mémoire de fille

Summer 1958, Annie is working at a summer camp. She's eighteen and has a mad desire to live, as Annie Ernaux recounts in her autobiographical memoir, Mémoire de fille. Her first sexual encounter, with an older counselor, was extremely violent. But she tries to see it as a passionate love affair, and tries to satisfy her desire for him with other men, only to be mocked and humiliated. Looking back, the novelist realizes that she has been the victim of sexual abuse, the effects of which have long troubled her. This story, brought to the stage in a vibrant monologue performed by actress Suzanne de Baecque, explores the question of the link between female sexuality and patriarchal subordination of women's bodies, as well as the possibility of developing a language for desire beyond the male gaze.