Show: Portrait of Ludmilla as Nina Simone

In the style of an interview punctuated by songs, David Lescot sketches the intersecting portraits of Nina Simone, the jazz diva, and Ludmilla Dabo, a young actress and singer born in Paris of parents from West Africa. Two lives, two destinies, one talent, one commitment.

Because she had black skin, her dream of becoming a classical concert performer never came true. Nina Simone mourned the loss of her career all her life. She became a jazz singer by default, and christened herself Nina (child in Spanish) Simone (in homage to Simone Signoret). An icon was born.

David Lescot paints her portrait in a question-and-answer session with Ludmilla Dabo. A portrait sung, because Nina Simone's verses are also testimonies. A committed campaigner for civil rights, she was a woman damaged in her desperate search for love. There is a dual nature to her: melancholy and combative, which is reflected in her music, where the blues always shines through.

In the end, who is revealed here? Nina Simone or Ludmilla Dabo? One in the mirror of the other. And vice versa. David Lescot has tailor-made a portrait of Ludmilla as Nina for the young artist. She brings her deep, powerful voice, her powerful stage presence, her convictions and her passion for jazz. And a part of the beautiful soul of Nina Simone.

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