Les Doyens

Les Doyens is a show-conference hosted by two delirious professors who think they know everything, shamelessly revealing their poor teaching skills. Drawing on great texts and literary references, treatises well known to adults but also references more familiar to children, Christophe Honoré uses this show to appeal to their budding sense of irony and their relationship with authority.

On stage, two ageless men claim to have been around forever and to have known all the historical figures they talk about very well. They are peremptory, authoritarian, paternalistic and have decided to use the performance to urgently re-educate the audience of children in front of them. Their sermons are exaggerated, ridiculous and provocative. The more they claim to know, the less we believe them. And then an irresistible urge to contradict them, to silence them, begins to take hold.

“I have always said that children’s books are a rare meeting place between children and adults, and that this encounter can lead to many emancipations on both sides. This belief will be at the heart of the show: addressing children from the perspective of adults, without seeking to construct an imaginary world that allows them to identify with it.”

Christophe Honoré

Premiere on 8 November 2023 at the Théâtre de la Ville – Paris (Abbesses)

Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Suitable for all ages 10 and above

Written and directed by Christophe Honoré

Starring Harrison Arévalo (role created by Jean-Charles Clichet), Julien Honoré and Sylvain Debry

Collaboration on direction Christèle Ortu

Set design Thibaut Fack

Lighting Mogan Daniel

Sound design and engineering Jean-Baptiste de Tonquédec

Costumes by Oriol Nogues

Wigs by Catherine de Saint-Sever

Dramaturgy assistant Alexandre Cordier

Stage manager Frédéric Plou

Lighting technicians Charly Hové and Julien Boizard (alternating)

Stagehands Arthur Pivert and Agathe Potard (alternating)

Set construction L’Atelier Baraka

Administration, production, distribution Colin Pitrat, Clémence Huckel, Iris Cottu – Les Indépendances

Production Comité dans Paris / La Comédie de Reims – National Drama Centre

Co-production Théâtre de la Ville – Paris, Théâtre de Vidy-Lausanne, Le Volcan national theatre of Le Havre, MA national theatre of Pays de Montbéliard

With the artistic participation of the Jeune Théâtre National

Residency support Théâtre de la Ville – Paris; Le Volcan scène nationale du Havre; Cromot, Maison d’artistes et de production

Le Comité dans Paris is a company subsidised by the DRAC Ile-de-France – Ministry of Culture