Les Démons ・ Comédie-Française

For his first Comédie-Française production in 2021, Belgian director Guy Cassiers adapted Dostoevsky’s "Demons", adding the Russian writer’s satirical novel to the Répertoire.

Dostoevsky began writing it after attending the 1867 Congress of Peace in Geneva, just before the turmoil provoked by the premeditated murder of a rebellious student orchestrated by revolution activist Sergey Nechayev. All of Guy Cassiers’ theatre productions revolve around the breaking points in European history. Just like for Albert Camus, who was one of the many authors who adapted novels, these possessed characters are not “absurd creatures” but “torn-up or dead souls, in pain because they are incapable of love, who want to believe but cannot, the very souls that haunt our society and our spiritual world.”
When it comes to combining video and acting, Cassiers is a master; he devised an innovative set in order to draw links between the now sterile generations of patriarchs, armchair revolutionaries who fail to walk the walk, and their sons, who criticize their elders without taking any steps towards a new model and end up becoming nihilists. The Salle Richelieu turns into the echo chamber of a society broken by media manipulation and turned to fanaticism. The Troupe gets busy building an artificial world for all to see, a world brought up by frivolity before being destroyed.

This show premiered on Sept 22, 2021 at the Salle Richelieu.

Creative team

Adaptation: Erwin Mortier
Translation: Marie Hooghe
Director: Guy Cassiers
Dramaturgy: Erwin Jans
Scenography and costumes: Tim Van Steenbergen
Lights: Fabiana Piccioli
Video: Bram Delafonteyne
Sound: Jeroen Kenens
Assistant director: Stéphanie Leclercq
Assistant to the scenography: Clémence Bezat
Costume assistance: Anna Rizza
Lighting assistant: François Thouret

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