In a world falling apart, a woman comes forward to speak. She has travelled through time. She has journeyed across the world. She belongs to no particular era or place. By turns, she is witness, victim and executioner. Around her stand figures from an old world in the process of collapsing. Her story is one of a gradual ascent into the madness of her time. She has lived through wars, diseases and revolutions. And yet, she comes with a smile. She comes to tell us her story, her stories. For history repeats itself, with a smile, while waiting for the new world. The text unfolds as a succession of stories set across the Mediterranean basin. The female narrator moves between cities that were marked by major outbreaks of plague: Marseille, Florence, and Caffa. Yersinia Pestis reflects on the fate of humanity in times of crisis, on those uncertain moments when human destiny hangs in the balance, when collective and individual choices disrupt the established order and open the possibility of a new world.

Text & stage direction : Orphée de Corbière-Kalessis
With : Amélie Osmond, Jonas Roth, Paul Fortini, Alexis Lidec | Noé Mercier-Follaci
Scenography & costumes : Myriam Rhziyel

Support & production : Mnemosyne Theater, L’Ecole Auvray-Nauroy, La Nouvelle compagnie, La Ménagerie de l’Improbable, Théâtre de l’Olmu, RiTES Festival, FONPEPS

The text was awarded by the Théâtre National de la Colline in 2024 and was performed as part of Aux Singuliers, directed by Frédéric Fisbach and performed by Anastasia Andrushkevich.

CALENDAR
Festival des Dionysades / Saint-Denis : 13 – 22 april 2022
Festival Remue-Ménage / Val d’Oise : 7 may 2022
Festival de l’Olmu / Corse : 9 & 10 august 2023
RiTES I Lavoir Moderne Parisien / Paris : 3 october 2023

Théâtre National de la Colline / Paris : 11, 16 & 18 october 2024