In the heart of violence

Venue: Room B - On his way home from a Christmas dinner in Paris, the young Édouard meets Reda, a man of Algerian origin, at 4 o'clock in the morning on the Place de la République. They start talking, start flirting, and a little later, Édouard takes Reda to his one-room apartment. The two spend the night together, Reda talks about his childhood and his father, who fled Algeria to France. The atmosphere is lively, they laugh, exchange caresses and have sex. But when Édouard discovers a few hours later that his smartphone has disappeared and Reda suddenly pulls out a revolver and threatens him, the situation suddenly turns into threat and violence and results in the rape of Édouard. The next morning, Édouard goes into police and medical care. In his helplessness as to how to deal with his trauma, he flees to the northern French province to his sister Clara and entrusts the story to her. The voices and reactions of his environment, the police and treating doctors to the dramatic incident reveal deep-rooted racism, homophobia and opaque power structures.

By reconstructing a traumatic night, the French author Édouard Louis formulates in his autobiographical novel “In the Heart of Violence” an analysis of growing up, desire, migration and racism that is as personal as it is socially repressed forms of violence in the variety of voices. Thomas Ostermeier, together with Édouard Louis, adapts the novel for the stage as a German-language premiere.