The Last Day of a Condemned Man/Autopsy of fear
World Congress
Minimalist décor, the markings of a cell, a narrow three-barred window and a man, terrorized by his scheduled death… Victor Hugo’s writing does not reveal the crime committed by this man; rather he describes human vulnerability during the countdown period that precedes the execution: the suffering endured by waiting, the impossible indifference of time slipping past, the last days, the last hours, the last minutes…
The future is stubbornly unreachable, despite the dreams of pardon, and then of escape. The last words of other executed men are displayed in blood letters on the surfaces of the cell. The sound of the crowd outside, eager for chopped heads, constantly reminds this man of the fatal end planned to his short life.
The anguish, the guilt, the shouts of rebellion are frozen during the last visit of his child. Then all is transformed.
A performance for Geneva 2010 delegates
David Lesné, actor and founder of the Ici Théâtre company, convincingly brings to life this character and his torment. Having broken away from comedic roles, he wished to take on a strong, profound, meaningful text, filled with humanity.
In 2009, he contacted ECPM to propose the theatrical adaptation of The Last Day of a Condemned Man by Victor Hugo for the delegates of the 4th World Congress. Under the direction of François Bourcier the artist significantly edited the text to retain only the painful, morbid, and yet living, fragments of thought.
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