La plus secrète mémoire des hommes
Two towering voices of Burkinabe theatre bring to life La plus secrète mémoire des hommes, a literary high-wire act by Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr.
Following the Trail of Words
Aristide Tarnagda and Odile Sankara, two towering voices of contemporary Burkinabe theatre, deliver a theatrical reading of Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s novel La plus secrète mémoire des hommes. A veritable literary odyssey revolving around a myriad of stories, this gripping work spans a century and three continents. From Senegal to France via Argentina, the winner of the most recent Prix Goncourt addresses the authenticity and power of literature with biting wit.
The young Senegalese author’s literary investigation inspired the duo in charge of Les Récréâtrales in Ouagadougou, one of the major theatre festival in West Africa and a hub for contemporary French-language writing from across the African continent. Through its complexity, its narrative energy, and its questions around of the transmission of knowledge in a global context, Sarr’s profoundly human novel unsettles the traditional opposition of Africa and the West.
Produced by Association Récréâtrales
Written by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (Éditions Philippe Rey, 2021)
Adapted and directed by Aristide Tarnagda
Performed by Aristide Tarnagda + Odile Sankara
Music composed and performed by Antoine Berthiaume
Lighting Design Claire Seyller
Stage Manager Elaine Normandeau
Co-produced by Festival TransAmériques + Théâtre Acclamations
Presented in association with Monument-National
Premiered at Festival TransAmériques, Montreal, on May 26, 2022
World première
Written by Ralph Elawani
Translated by David Dalgleish
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (Paris + Dakar)
Author Mohamed Mbougar Sarr was born in Dakar in 1990. After tackling the fate of illegal migrants (Silence du chœur, 2015) and the treatment of homosexuals in Senegal (De purs hommes, 2017), he imagined a resistance opposing the reign of terror in a city under Islamic rule (Terre ceinte, 2018).
Aristide Tarnagda (Ouagadougou)
Aristide Tarnagda is a dramaturge, director, and actor. Born in Ouagadougou in 1983, he began his career in theatre after completing his studies in sociology. His meeting with the Ivorian dramaturge Koffi Kwahulé at the Les Récréâtrales festival, where he presented his first work, Alors, tue-moi, in 2004, was pivotal.
Odile Sankara (Ouagadougou)
Actor, writer, director, and activist Odile Sankara is the president of Les Récréâtrales and a founding member of the Association Talents de Femme in Burkina Faso. A leading figure on the country’s arts scene, she has participated in organizing five editions of the Festival voix de femmes.
Edition 2022
Performances
- Thu26May7 p.m.
- Fri27May7 p.m.
- Sat28May7 p.m.
