Magistral.e.s
With "Magistral·e·s", Alexandra Cismondi imagines a participative audience theatre that will transform the Franciscans’ room into a seating court. Noury of her immersion in the heart of the judicial world and inspired by a trial that took part in the evolution of the law on the non-consentment of minors under the age of 15, the stage designer questions the system: how can a society demand a child that it demonstrates that she did not consent?
By giving voice to those who instruct, accuse, defend and judge, Alexandra Cismondi makes the scene a space of tension and reflection. Between theatre and justice, Magistral·e·s doesn’t just play a trial, she asks about the very writing of the law and the collective responsibility it commits.
In the boxing of the accused, a man of twenty-seven denies the rape of a child of eleven, arguing that he was unaware of his age and that she was “consenting”. Absent trial, the girl is defended by her lawyer. At the helm, the strategies are facing: dismantling the victim’s credibility, pointing out the faults of a system, trying to change the law. Little by little, the case goes beyond the individual case to become a major issue: recognizing the collective responsibility of a society that tries to name rape.
Intention
I wonder who judges who, who is in what place and what it tells of us, women, men, children, citizens, society. In November 2023, I met Master Camille Hamonet and I am, with interviews in the courtroom. I hear, I see, I try to understand, and more than ever I wonder, because in a court of sitting every answer raises a new question. The judicial system is complex to understand, its language is rough and boring, its clothing is disguised. My feeling about the justice and the questions that led to it led Mr. Hamonet to talk to me about a particular case, that of a rape on a minor who saw the law on the non-consentment of minors under the age of fifteen. Rape and consent must be at the heart of our social concern. In the light of the trial of Mazan’s rapes, I hope to put in the centre of this room the responsibility of the social body in the face of consent. Alexandra Cismondi
Author: Alexandra Cismondi
With: Marie-Sohna Condé, Noémie Gantier, Elio Massignat, Mélodie Richard, Crystal Shepherd-Cross
Duration: 2h15
Price: From 5€ to 35€
Reservation information : Any public from 14 years old
By giving voice to those who instruct, accuse, defend and judge, Alexandra Cismondi makes the scene a space of tension and reflection. Between theatre and justice, Magistral·e·s doesn’t just play a trial, she asks about the very writing of the law and the collective responsibility it commits.
In the boxing of the accused, a man of twenty-seven denies the rape of a child of eleven, arguing that he was unaware of his age and that she was “consenting”. Absent trial, the girl is defended by her lawyer. At the helm, the strategies are facing: dismantling the victim’s credibility, pointing out the faults of a system, trying to change the law. Little by little, the case goes beyond the individual case to become a major issue: recognizing the collective responsibility of a society that tries to name rape.
Intention
I wonder who judges who, who is in what place and what it tells of us, women, men, children, citizens, society. In November 2023, I met Master Camille Hamonet and I am, with interviews in the courtroom. I hear, I see, I try to understand, and more than ever I wonder, because in a court of sitting every answer raises a new question. The judicial system is complex to understand, its language is rough and boring, its clothing is disguised. My feeling about the justice and the questions that led to it led Mr. Hamonet to talk to me about a particular case, that of a rape on a minor who saw the law on the non-consentment of minors under the age of fifteen. Rape and consent must be at the heart of our social concern. In the light of the trial of Mazan’s rapes, I hope to put in the centre of this room the responsibility of the social body in the face of consent. Alexandra Cismondi
Author: Alexandra Cismondi
With: Marie-Sohna Condé, Noémie Gantier, Elio Massignat, Mélodie Richard, Crystal Shepherd-Cross
Duration: 2h15
Price: From 5€ to 35€
Reservation information : Any public from 14 years old