Theatre : The Trial of Jeanne Bloch

Both a trial play and a political thriller, The Trial of Jeanne Bloch paints a contrasting portrait of a former Prime Minister of France. François Hien, a captivating author and director of a theatre halfway between fiction fiction and documentary, invents here an imaginary 'national novel' against a backdrop of rising authoritarian perils.
Jeanne Bloch led Matignon for ten months, in a context of acute political crisis. Five years later, when an authoritarian regime has taken power, Jeanne Bloch is summoned to court, accused of having betrayed the people. Her young lawyer wants to make this trial a political platform. But Jeanne wants to defend herself from the accusations against her. The play alternates between hearings under heavy surveillance, and flashbacks that allow us to discover a perilous and tense government experience. After his show La Peur, praised by the audience of La Coupe d'Or last season for his writing intelligence and his sense of debate, François Hien continues his exploration of the major social issues. Here he signs a new creation faithful to his investigative theatre. The play echoes in particular the Riom trial brought by Pétain in 1942, which indicted Daladier's liberal centre-right and Blum's social left, which the identitarian right wanted to blame for the French defeat.
On the trail of this very realistic uchronia, François Hien offers us a fascinating theatre of investigation, political and sensitive.

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