Details
This production is about the life of Nina Simone — pianist, singer, and militant advocate for civil rights. It is a sublime and tragic journey, an epic of 70 years, ending in almost complete solitude in France in 2003. Great-great-granddaughter of an Amerindian and an African-American enslaved person, she is heir to four centuries of American colonial history.
Working with a team of African-American and French performers for two years, David Geselson tackles the gruesome conquest of the New World by European colonizers, focusing in particular on the history of African-Americans. Through the fate of Nina Simone, Silence and Fear questions our contemporary Western heritage. Written and performed in English and French, the show is a testament to the meeting of two worlds and two legacies, French-European and African-American.
This is David Geselson’s second appearance at Seuls en Scène. He presented Doreen in 2018.
Join the Event
This Event is Open to the Princeton University Community Only (Students, Faculty, and Staff). Masks are required in the theater.
Sponsorship
The French Theater Festival is sponsored by Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, L’Avant-Scène, Department of French and Italian, Humanities Council, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Study (PIIRS), Department of Art and Archaeology, Department of Comparative Literature, Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society, Center for French Studies, and Rockefeller College. International sponsors include Festival d’Automne in Paris, Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the Education Department of the French Embassy, Institut français, and the French American Cultural Exchange Foundation.
