The Roman crossing of Brigitte Haentjens

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Four years ago, director Brigitte Haentjens had the idea of ​​doing what she had never done in her 45-year career: stage five plays by Shakespeare about the era one after the other.

“It's the longest show I've produced, because it will last 7:30 am, including intermissions, says- her speaking of Rome which brings together in an evening The Rape of Lucretius, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and Titus Andronicusat Usine C. It’s unique. We will never experience that again. »

The theater woman wanted to deal with power and domination. So she chose these works of Shakespeare. 

“It represents the chronology of Rome quite well,” she says. From the beginning of democracy to the fall into chaos and anarchy. »

“It's an epic,” she adds in a telephone interview. It is a journey through history and politics. But if I could have seen all that involved, I would have turned back. With 25 actors, the schedules were hell! »

Three generations

Brigitte Haentjens also had the objective of creating community theater. She has thus called on long-time collaborators, such as Céline Bonnier, Marc Béland and Sébastien Ricard, but also on younger ones, such as Irdens Exantus, or even members of the next generation in their early twenties. So there are three generations on stage, excluding the two children who take part in this production.

“I wanted a team spirit to do theater in all simplicity, without video”, mentions the one who had worked in the mid-2000s with 50 actresses for the show Just like her written by Louise Dupré. 

All the actors play in more than one play, exchanging main and secondary roles.

The artistic director of the Sibyllines company and the French Theater of the National Arts Center has entrusted the translation of Shakespeare to another partner with whom she has worked for a long time, Jean Marc Dalpé.

“It is wonderful that 'we worked on the text for three years to tighten the pieces, she says. Jean Marc adapted them in contemporary French. We simplified the language. »

A common experience

She is delighted with the scope of her proposal, which will bring the spectators to live an intimate moment together. 

“It's a different relationship to cultural consumption as we usually know it,” she points out. We create a kind of community with our neighbors with whom we spend so much time side by side. » 

« We can chat during breaks or eat a piece of sandwich on the go. As long as the phones don't ring, it's fine! she laughs. 

Rome is presented at Usine C from April 5 to 23< /strong>