In his solo piece De ce côté , Congolese author, actor and director Dieudonné Niangouna introduces us to Dido, a theater maker living in exile. He was forced to leave his home country during a performance after a bomb attack. Although no one was able to identify the perpetrators, Dido was declared an enemy of the state because he had spoken out critically about the ruling regime and supported a politically engaged theater.
Dido had to leave his family and his audience behind. Since then, he has lived in exile in Europe and is plagued by feelings of guilt. Arguments and quarrels with old acting colleagues dominate his life, as do the endless nights in the bar he bought on credit to present stand-up comedy. Dido, who cannot find his way onto European stages as an actor, is plagued by feelings of guilt and asks himself where his place can be in this foreign environment. What could be his point of view, his perspective – and who could be his audience? With melancholy, iro-nia and tenderness, Dido ponders the question of how theater can still be made in today’s violent world…
One day, a director turns up and offers him the lead role in his next play: La fin de la colère / The End of Anger. This role offers Dido the opportunity to look back into his own past, face his demons and develop a new vision of politically engaged theater.
In a sober, frontally spoken portrait, Dieudonné Niangouna portrays a man caught between two worlds, whose eloquence confuses claims to power as much as language and its terms themselves. We experience an actor who is inspired by his characters. De ce côté | Diesseits invites the audience to trace the feeling of foreignness in Europe from a diasporic perspective.
(See also Theater im Depot, Dortmund, Jens Heitjohann)
TEXT, DIRECTOR AND ACTOR Dieudonné Niangouna | LIGHT DESIGN Laurent Vergnaud | VIDEO DESIGN Sean Hart | TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT Cléo Konongo and Laurent Vergnaud | TRANSLATION / SUBTITLING Isolde Schmitt | PRODUCTION Compagnie Les Bruits de la Rue, Jason Abajo, Irène Afker, Antoine Blesson | CO-PRODUCTION Théâtre des 13 vents – CDN de Montpellier | The company Les Bruits de la Rue is supported by the DRAC Île-de-France – Ministry of Culture