© Louise Quignon
Après la paix vient le plus dur
Accompanied on stage by a choir of amateur singers of all ages and surrounded by an evolving set and sound design, Cléa Laizé weaves together the intimate exchanges between a father and his daughter—who are attempting to construct a shared narrative of past violence—with our collective memory of peace and its ‘craft’, which is all too rarely passed on. It is amidst this minefield that imaginary, syncretic ceremonies of pacification are invented – those we have lacked and those we will need.
“I began to take an interest in rituals of pacification because I realised that I was myself in the process of creating one, on my own scale, with my own father. My father and I are bound by a history of domestic violence: the violence I grew up with for 17 years, which he perpetrated, and the violence he himself endured in his own childhood. The term ‘pacification’ refers to the act of bringing about peace; it is therefore a long-term process, not a resolution. ‘Peace’ is a very broad concept which will not be treated here as an end in itself. It is indeed the process itself that is at issue, and that is what I would like to highlight.” Cléa Laizé
Credits
Text and direction: Cléa Laizé
Performed by: Cléa Laizé and a group of amateur actors
Assistant director: Fanny Sintès
Dramaturgy: Gaia Singer
Choreography: Joachim Maudet
Set design: Olivier Brichet
Costumes: Majan Pochard
Sound: Louise Prieur
Lighting: Ronan Cabon
Artistic support: Simon Gauchet
Administration, production and distribution: Céline Aguillon and Grégoire le Divelec – Hectores
In partnership with L’École Parallèle Imaginaire (a scheme supported by the DGCA – DRAC Bretagne)
Co-production (in progress): Itinéraires d’artiste(s) 2025 – Nantes-Rennes-Brest-Rouen-Le Mans partnership, Théâtre l’Aire Libre – St-Jacques de la Landes / Le joli collectif, Le Grand Cordel MJC
Cléa Laizé
Cléa Laizé is an actress. She began her theatrical training at the École du Jeu in Paris in 2012, where she met Yumi Fujitani, who introduced her to butoh and organic dance. In September 2015, she joined the ninth class of the ESAD at the Théâtre National de Bretagne in Rennes. Since graduating in 2018, she has performed and worked with Jean-Pierre Baro, Charlie Windelschmidt, Vanessa Larré, Bruno Meyssat, the Ba jour collective, Julie Bertin and Léa Girardet, Delphine Battour, Simon Cauchet, and Christophe Laluque, based on contemporary texts as well as numerous stage scripts. Passionate about teaching, she regularly works in schools, psychiatric institutions, and detention centers. She is also developing and writing her first directing project.