Returning to Reims

Eribon, a gay intellectual from the suburbs of Reims, fled his hometown in order to reveal his orientation and advance in society. A trip to Paris allowed Eribon to explore his gay identity, while maintaining, despite his leftist values, the shame of his family's working-class origins. Only the death of his father triggered in him the need to return to his hometown and revise his class identity. This experience inspired him to write Return to Reims. The book instantly became a bestseller. The 2019 Polish translation momentarily acquired the status of a cult publication, describing an experience analogous to that of the generation of the political transition: people who, in the first generation, made real or apparent social advancement through migration to big cities and university graduation. The generation for which origin becomes an embarrassing, repressed secret. The performance, presented as a meeting with Didier Eribon, tries to look at the mechanisms described in the book and ask about their relevance here and now.

adaptation: Beniamin Bukowski
music: Wojciech Blecharz, Piotr Pacześniak
video: Antoni Grałek
sound engineering: Piotr Pacześniak
editing: Piotr Waldemar Zajączkowski
graphic design: Anna Rogóż
choreography consultant: Agnieszka Kryst
additional set and costume design: Anna Rogóż, Natálie Rajnišová
assistants: Natálie Rajnišová, Anna Rogóż, Piotr Pacześniak
producer: Filip Pawlak
stage manager: Łukasz Jóźków

This performance will be presented in Polish with Ukrainian surtitles.