la revue de presse - Le Théâtre du Soleil

théâtre du soleil in afghanistanmuch more. Of course I’m not against poetry,but you can’t make the comparison. To supporttheater is also to support something moredangerous. To play someone else, to incarnatesomebody, you have to understand them, youhave to accept them. If you are Muslim, yousuddenly have to become a Jew or a Christian.If you are Christian, you suddenly becomeMuslim, or Jewish, or black, or a dwarf, or agiant, or a woman if you are a man, or a manif you are a woman. You have to be the Other,and that is priceless — priceless. Especially in asociety based, because of history, on the refusalof the Other: the refusal of women, refusal offoreigners, refusal of somebody else. That’swhat I felt in that workshop, as I watched theactors dressing and undressing young studentsin these traditional costumes. It was such anact of sharing and transformation and thatwas very precious, and in a way very political.So we must support this, and support themwhen they go back. It’s more difficult, andprobably more political and more revolutionarythan just editing beautiful poems, whichmust also be done. But sending real people,living people, there to take your things awayand suddenly put some makeup on your face,even though it’s forty degrees Celsius andeverybody’s sweating — and voilà! They weretouching each others’ bodies, each others’hearts, and it’s very concrete. Theater has todo with concrete things and political things,and the villager has to understand — and wehave to make him understand — that the bodyof the Other is not the devil. That’s what theaterhas to convey, and you have to give moneyfor that.richter Well, we can’t blame anybody butourselves for getting into this situation. Wewant to be in this situation, and I would liketo express to you and to Robert once more ouradmiration for your work, and in particular forwhat you’ve shared with the Afghans.7 7