Roman Empire

Why are today’s authoritarian regimes obsessed with ancient columns? How can architectural trends threaten neo-fascist ideologies? Two actors—as meticulous as they are eccentric—have fun investigating the power dynamics between architecture and authority.

It all starts with the space—the venue where the show takes place. The floor, the walls, the bleachers, the building, the roof. This is the setting, which is also at the heart of the matter: public buildings and the power struggles surrounding their architecture. Camille Dagen and Emma Depoid draw on current events to explore this sometimes surprising relationship. How can a small art school—active for barely a dozen years and closed for nearly a century—represent a power struggle today? Yet the AfD, Germany’s far-right party, did indeed file a motion in 2025 aimed at challenging the legacy of the Bauhaus. At the same time, Donald Trump signed an executive order banning modernist architectural styles. How can theories about lines, materials, and colors unsettle the leader of a superpower? When questions are this bizarre, it means there’s a story to be told! With very little at their disposal but a refreshing intensity, the acting duo has fun bringing a few ghosts back to life and attempts to understand the sweeping comeback of the Roman Empire in certain contemporary imaginations. And what if all of this has