Au cœur de la rose (Généalogie d’une tristesse)

In 2005, Jérémie Niel founded the company Pétrus, which he has led ever since, pursuing a remarkably rigorous and consistent vision. In the first year, he presented La campagne (The Country) by Britain’s Martin Crimp, a representative work of contemporary dramaturgy which he would tackle again ten years later. In between, the director explored a wide range of artistic fields, drawing on sources of all kinds. Film, dance, music, performance, and visual arts lend a unique touch to his works for the stage, which shake theater to its foundations. Recently, he directed Qui a tué mon père (2022), based on an essay by the French writer Édouard Louis, at the Quat’Sous theatre. Shortly after that, he explored the dystopian world of the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai in ANIMALINSIDE (2023), an intimate performance presented at the Cité-des-Hospitalières. In February 2024, at the Agora de la danse, he will present Face-à-face, with choreography by Catherine Gaudet. This is Niel’s third appearance at Festival TransAmériques, following Cendres (2010) and Phèdre (2014).

Fascinated by the cruel beauty of human finitude, Niel embraces the vertigo of existence and its elusive truths, from which he derives his unique aesthetic approach. An exceptional director of actors, he focuses on interiority and mystery—and sometimes on the unbearable. On darkened, stripped-down stages, the action takes place amid chiaroscuro and sonic textures. Rustling, breathing, and murmuring are conveyed to the audience by means of amplification, which Niel loves using to establish a hypnotic, compelling world. At Pétrus, words ring out in deafening silence, time slows down, senses become sharper, and the intensity never relents.