La langue de Molière – eine widerständige Ballettkomödie

In the organizer's words:

The La Fleur team from France, Mexico and the Ivory Coast mix their own urban dance and language style from Molière's "The Citizen as Nobleman": the classic ballet comedy about naive, brutal greed for advancement becomes the perfect antidote to ridding oneself of the colonial power of French high culture and the curse of forced conformity with liberating mockery.

"We speak the language of Molière (On parle la langue de Molière)" is a common saying in the Ivory Coast. Here, Molière is synonymous with French colonization in language and culture and a benchmark for expressing oneself in a chosen way and meeting European standards.

Many members of La Fleur grew up with the iconic Molière. In their latest play, they appropriate "The Citizen as Nobleman". The comedy tells of the desire for advancement of a bourgeois who takes brutal action against his own people and wants to shine by naively conforming to educational and etiquette norms. He takes refinement lessons for higher society, does not understand the codes and is financially excluded by his teachers.

La Fleur transfers Molière's criticism of identification with the upper class to the (post)colonial situation: there have long been counter-movements in the Ivory Coast to the uncritical adoption of French culture. Since the 1970s, many Ivorians have been speaking Nouchi, a hybrid of French, indigenous languages and new slang expressions, accompanied by gestures and dances. In this sense, La Fleur translates the ballet comedy with its rapid changes of text scenes and choreographies into its own joyful music-dance-word art, ultimately pitting Molière against Molière.

Price information:

Solidary price system (freely selectable): 8 € / 12 € / 21 € / 36 €