Sébastien Kheroufi
Les enfants de la patrie
octoberoct 16
Friday october 16
20h
Text and staging by Sébastien Kheroufi. Cast to be announced. Set design by Benjamin Lebreton and Sébastien Kheroufi. Sébastien Kheroufi is assisted by Louise Kretzschmar. Production La Tendre Lenteur. The company La Tendre Lenteur is supported by Céline Martinet — Tapioca Production.
In resonance with the Centre Pompidou exhibition Vies minuscules, presented in the nave of the Panthéon from 25 September 2026 to 31 January 2027.
The performance will be preceded by a presentation of artistic workshops led with 83 children from the Île-de-France region, in collaboration with Théâtre de Corbeil-Essonnes, Théâtre des Quartiers d’Ivry, La Colline — national theatre, and the MC93 — Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis.
The Centre Pompidou, the Centre des monuments nationaux and the Festival d’Automne à Paris present this performance as a co-production.
As part of the Centre Pompidou’s Constellation programme.
The Fondation de France is partnering with the Festival d’Automne to provide artistic support for Sébastien Kheroufi.
In the tragedy of our lives, the end is something we know all to well. What we are not familiar with, however, is how it comes about. Sébastien Kheroufi will be presenting the epilogue of his forthcoming new work, La mort du Môme, three weeks prior to its premiere. This performance, Les enfants de la patrie, is a way of letting go of all suspense. What interests him is not that of staging the spectacle of a tragic life, but rather an investigation into the inner workings of misery.
In La mort du Môme, which will be presented at La Colline, a child dies in response to finding their father dead in an Emmaüs hostel bedroom. During the epilogue, eighty-three continue to live. Here, Sébastien Kheroufi chooses to shift the narrative in the direction of the living, those that remain: the children that run off the second the bell rings, the pupils, youngsters, and their inalienable right to a future. The Mômes, or youngsters, growing up in the peripheries, are at the threshold of their lives. Our responsibility is to pass on to them the tenderness and carefree ways that are so necessary to their growing up. The most fundamental right they have is for no obstacles to be placed in their way and for them not to be deprived of what they might have become. As part of the Vies minuscules exhibition, conceived by the Centre Pompidou, the writer and director takes over the Panthéon—a place of illustrious figures from the past—in the aim of offering it up to our children. Over the course of a performance of an exceptional nature, he will be transforming the nef, or nave, into a playground. A different idea, perhaps, of a nation’s gratitude.
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