A Lettre for Elena - Le Petit Théâtre de Sherbrooke and La Parenthèse-Christophe Garica

Somewhere in the countryside, on a summer morning, Frank, Lucie, and Aïcha were playing, just like every other day since school had ended. They encountered a squirrel’s nest, a pond, a tree trunk which they reimagined as a racer, a rock, strawberries, some hay, a ditch, a road… On the side of that road, they found a multitude of objects and letters left there just for them. They rummaged through and found messages from everyone, except from Elena, their best friend and the fourth of the gang. She remained in silence for a reason they could not explain themselves. There had to be a letter from her, and the children needed to find it! Throughout their research, Frank, Lucie, and Aïcha reveal to us, step by step, the words of a whole town saying goodbye: those of a little brother not yet born, with so many questions in his mind, those of a grandfather who’s already in heaven waiting for them, the secret words we love to read again and again, the words that protest, the glowing neon words that are filled with love… And slowly, they clear up some space. At the crossroads of theater and dance, A Letter for Elena is a play unfolding itself like a treasure hunt, where the path of mourning is slowly drawn, and words take form to say goodbye.