Fartlek

Finalist in the 2022 Text'enjeu competition (formerly the Amiens Academy Teenage Grand Prix). 

Finalist in the 18th Armand Gatti Library Prize 2021.

Mayenne Department Prize 2021

It all began with a news item. As they do every week, a group of secondary school pupils in the sports stream, specialising in swimming, were travelling by coach from their school to the swimming pool. The PE teacher, a woman, got off the coach – as she does every week – to help a few pupils from another stream cross the road. The atmosphere turned sour. The teacher was subjected to sarcastic remarks, and the situation escalated. The driver intervened to restore order on the coach; a power struggle ensued, during which the adult, whilst trying to reprimand the pupil, lost her temper and shoved him roughly.

The characters’ difficulty in finding a common language is what triggers the violence: very quickly, the other person’s language is perceived as aggressive. Just as incivility is unleashed like an attack intended to make the adult back down, the adult’s words – his calls to order, phrased in the polite language of grown-ups – are received as an attack by the young people.

Aggression becomes a mode of interaction in which each person gauges their power and the extent of their territory. Accustomed to sporting training, the young swimmers call the shots.

The play, both in its structure and its writing, finds its rhythm in this training exercise known as Fartlek.