Don DeLillo / Julien Gosselin / Cie Si vous pouviez lécher mon coeur

After Houellebecq and Bolaño, the director Julien Gosselin continues his scenic exploration of the literature of today and violence in our societies. Based on a short story by the American writer Don DeLillo, this latest production presents the dystopian world of high finance.

Julien Gosselin returns to confronting contemporary literature through his exploration of Don DeLillo’s short story Hammer and Sickle. Jerold Bradway is a trader locked up in prison for financial criminal offenses. Along with his cell-mates, he is forced to watch a children’s television program written by his ex-wife and presented by his two daughters, which talks about constant financial crises. French director Julien Gosselin brings the story to life through a powerful monologue that reflects on the contemporary void and our relationship with money.

In 2013, the impact of Particules élémentaires brought Si vous pouviez lécher mon cœur, a young collective lead by Julien Gosselin, into the spotlight. In 2016, with 2666, an adaptation of Roberto Bolaño monumental novel, the director confirmed his taste for torrent-like shows, non-theatre-based texts and all-embracing, immersive formats in which music, video, and lighting engage spectators in a dazzling aesthetic experience. These productions also saw him digging deeper into themes which have become an integral part of his work – literature, violence, and the ways in which human beings become victims of the underground movements that history and society at large produce.

These same themes come to mind in the novels by American writer Don DeLillo. Julien Gosselin recently adapted Players (1977), Names (1982) and Mao II (1991) that draw upon the inextricable links between individual destiny and collective history. Here he adapts the short story Hammer and the Sickle published in 2010, in which DeLillo satirizes the world of high finance.

Estimated running time: 1h / In French with English subtitles

Registration

Tickets can be reserved online through University Ticketing(Link is external), or in person at the Frist Campus Center Ticket Office, or by calling 609-258-9220.

Credits

Text by Don DeLillo
Translation, Marianne Véron
Adapted and directed by Julien Gosselin
Translation, Marianne Véron
With Joseph Drouet
Set design, Hubert Colas
Musical creation, Guillaume Bachelé, Maxence Vandevelde
Lighting creation, Nicolas Joubert
Video creation, Pierre Martin
Sound creation, Julien Feryn
Costume design, Caroline Tavernier

Text published by Editions Actes Sud

A Si vous pouviez lécher mon coeur production // A coproduction by Printemps des Comédiens Montpellier, CCAM Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, Maison de la Culture de Bourges // Administration, production, distribution: Eugénie Tesson // Tour management, communication: Emmanuel Mourmant // Administration assistant: Paul Lacour-Lebouvier // Technical director: Nicolas Ahssaine // Co-technical director: Vianney Brunin // The adaptation of Hammer and Sickle is represented in French-speaking countries by Dominique Christophe l’Agence, Paris, in agreement with Abrams Artists & The Wallace Literary Agency, New York

Thanks to Pierre Gendronneau, Usine C, Montréal, Danielle de Fontenay

Sponsorship

Lewis Center for the Arts
Department of French and Italian
Humanities Council
Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS)
Si vous pouviez lécher mon coeur
Cultural Services of the French Embassy

Biography of Julien Gosselin

Julien Gosselin attended the EPSAD (Professional Graduate School of Dramatic Art) in Lille, directed by Stuart Seide. As an actor, he worked with Lucie Berelowitch, Laurent Hatat and Tiphaine Raffier. Then, as assistant director, he worked with Pierre Foviau, Laurent Hatat and Stuart Seide. In 2009, with six actors of his class, he founded the company Si Vous Pouviez Léchez Mon Cœur, and staged in 2010 Fausto’s Paravidino’s Gênes 01, first at the Théâtre du Nord, then on tour. The following year, still with SVPLMC, he staged Tristesse Animal Noir, the French creation of Anja Hilling’s Black Animal Sadness, first at the Théâtre de Vanves, then on tour in 2012. In July 2013, at the Festival d’Avignon, he staged for the first time his adaptation of Michel Houellebecq’s novel Les Particules Élémentaires, which is SVPLMC’s third creation. In 2014, at the invitation of the Théâtre National de Bruxelles, he created Je Ne Vous Ai Jamais Aimés, a long musical poem inspired by a text written by Pascal Bouaziz and projected on a large screen. In 2016, he created Roberto Bolano’s 2666, at the Festival d’Avignon then on tour (Paris, Athens, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Tianjin, Cologne). Julien Gosselin and Si vous pouviez lécher mon cœur are partners of The Phénix, Scène Nationale in résidence in Valenciennes and of the Théâtre National de Strasbourg. In 2021, Julien Gosselin and Si vous pouviez lécher mon cœur will settle in Calais on the port. A theater factory that will mark the beginning of a new era for the company.