Arthur Nauzyciel

Nearly a quarter-century after its premiere, Arthur Nauzyciel reprises his audacious first staging, in which Molière's comedy and the imaginary testimony of his only daughter engage in a dialogue. The echoes of this blend of reality and fiction are echoed today by a reworked cast.

In 1999, Arthur Nauzyciel revisited Molière's last comedy in the ghostly light of a text written in 1975 by historian Giovanni Macchia, an imaginary interview with Esprit-Madeleine Poquelin. In it, Molière's only daughter reveals why she rejects her family, her father and her name. Thus embedded in Le Malade imaginaire, her words sow confusion. In returning to this creation, the director reaffirms his conviction that life and death are intertwined, that the past nourishes the present and that art can repair us. The same man who played Diafoirus fils now plays Diafoirus père. Joining him are Catherine Vuillez and Laurent Poitrenaux, originally present, and seven young performers from the Théâtre National de Bretagne school. Arthur Nauzyciel adds to the thickness of the play's echoes the experience of time gone by and the road travelled. And the possibility of passing the baton to another generation.