Two black actors, two white actresses, and Michel Dezoteux in a new role, for the first time at the helm of a multi-faceted project, the initiative of two actors, on the theme of difference and racism:

Les paroles (The Words) by Daniel Keene
French translation by Séverine Magois
Paul and Hélène travel from town to town. Somewhere or other, it doesn't matter where, they stop. He speaks words to people. She waits for him. A life is a life. This is theirs.

Noir-Hamlet (Black Hamlet) by Slimane Benaïssa
Christine is pregnant. She's waiting impatiently to tell Aimé the good news. Aimé arrives. He's in a strange state of mind. He has just been turned down for the role of Hamlet because he's black.

La main (The Hand) by Lise Vaillancourt
A woman enters a bar. She looks like a vamp but there's something which doesn't quite fit. She sits at the counter and orders a whisky. Next to her, a black man.

Je ne sais pas pourquoi nous sommes ici (I don't know why we're here) by Carlos Liscano
French translation by Françoise Thanas
An actor and an actress must speak. Apparently the subject of conversation is Blacks. It seems that many people are interested in Blacks. What sort of people are they?

We met at the Conservatoire of Dramatic Art in Perpignan (France). Since then, we've worked together in a play for speaking (a staged presentation of poems set to music) by Pierre Dufrêne, a playwright from the Pyrénées Orientales region. And finally, we met up again at the Théâtre du Reflexe where we presented Les voisins (The Neighbours) by James Saunders. During preparation and rehearsals, we spent a lot of time discussing, reflecting, questioning ourselves and each other in relation to the characters: is it their respective skin colour that leads each character to intrigue about the other? Les voisins generated some differences of perception among members of the audience, differences which, far from shedding light on our questioning, only increased it. Wanting to delve more deeply into this work, we asked Jean Lebeau, who was also concerned by the theme, to direct us again. He accepted the gamble. However, Les voisins was perceived as a play illustrating another period of time: many members of the audience did not feel concerned. Yet the theatre is the true thermometer of public attitude (State Security Sheet of 21 Brumaire of the Year II.). Where are we with the notion of racism? Where are we today with the relationship between black and white?

We believe it was essential to free ourselves of a restrictive temporal and geographic context. This is how the project Un noir, une blanche (A black man, a white woman) came into being.

My first grade teacher used to say to my mother, "You must not speak Catalan to the children". For a long time, I was ashamed of my mother tongue. At the age of thirty-three, I finally understood how we can deny ourselves when others deny us, and the uneasiness this can provoke in us, to feel that what we are is despised, when what we are deep inside is challenged: the colour of our skin, our size, our mother tongue, our culture, our roots, our opinions...

I could retell any number of stories which have had an impact on my life. I could go on and on about the harassments and humiliations, the anger and the bitterness, the punches thrown and received to defend my honour as a black child. On racism, I would have a good many things to say, just by varying the tone ... So, I'll hand over to the poet, I just can't wait to play his music in a major chord. In short, may the time pass quickly until we hear: "Let the play begin!".