Le Scarabée et l'océan
Le Birgit Ensemble
Creation 2025
Nour is 11 years old, entering 6th grade, and comes from a country where masculine and feminine no longer exist. Sixty years ago, Ustrilie even adopted a “neutral grammar reform.” Nour is Tala’s child. Tala works for UNESCO and has just been transferred to France. Upon stepping into the middle school, Nour discovers that humans are divided into two teams: “girls” and “boys.” Nour struggles to adapt and unintentionally makes others laugh, without understanding why. Fortunately, Nour can talk to an imaginary friend, a beetle, and meets Eli, whom everyone insists on calling Eliott. The two children form a deep friendship where they can share their secrets in confidence.
Written in immersion at two middle schools in Saint-Denis, this text by Leïla Anis offers a satire of our categorizations of sex and gender. Reviving the literary concept of the foreign gaze, which allows for the critique of our customs and norms, this mischievous fable draws on linguistic research aimed at deconstructing the rule that “the masculine prevails over the feminine.”
The staging by Julie Bertin and Jade Herbulot adopts Nour’s point of view, playing on the strangeness of this world—an unrealistic space reminiscent of giant children’s games. It embraces the shift in perspective found in the play, creating both a sense of fun and wonder.
Estimated duration: 1h30
Text by Leïla Anis
Directed by Julie Bertin & Jade Herbulot
With Caroline Arrousas, Antonin Fadinard, Julie Tedesco, Lili Thomas
Scenography: James Brandily
Costumes: Pauline Kieffer
Lighting: César Godefroy
Sound: Lucas Lelièvre
Stage management: Victor Veyron, alternating with Marco Benigno
Scenography assistant: Coline Cerf
Directing assistant: Emmanuelle Linée
Produced by Théâtre Gérard Philipe, national dramatic center of Saint-Denis; Le Birgit Ensemble.
With the artistic participation of the Jeune Théâtre National.
Leïla Anis, associate author at Théâtre Gérard Philipe, national dramatic center of Saint-Denis from 2020 to 2024, wrote this text in immersion at the Fabien, De Geyter, and Pierre Sémard neighborhood middle schools in Saint-Denis during a writing residency from October 2021 to June 2022.
© Pascale Fournier