The line between real and fictional anguish disappears in “C’est la vie” (“That’s Life”), the second of three productions the director Mohamed El Khatib is presenting in Paris this fall. Mr. El Khatib has been prominently featured at this year’s Festival d’Automne à Paris, a large-scale, multidisciplinary event founded in 1972 that brings performances and exhibitions to a range of Paris venues every fall. Like “You Will Not Have My Hate,” “C’est la vie” attempts to make theater out of private tragedy. At various points, Ms. Catel and Mr. Kenigsberg talk about their children’s deaths in prerecorded videos to avoid reliving the experience; they watch their testimony with the audience. Their latest work marked a departure by focusing instead on a political lightning rod: the notion of national identity.

Source: New York Times November 24, 2017 02:48 UTC