Ciels
May 11-22, 2010
NAC, 53 Elgin Street
May 11-22, 2010
NAC, 53 Elgin Street
The story of a son who is driven to sacrifice another son.
Sequestered in a maximum-security facility, five government agents are using state-of-the-art technology to monitor telephone conversations in a radius of several kilometres. Together with their counterparts in other parts of the world, they are trying to decipher an enigma. For several months now, they have been intercepting coded messages that lead them to believe that a terrorist strike of unprecedented scale is imminent…. but so far no one has been able to decode the messages and pinpoint when and where the attack will take place. As they race against the clock and their chances of success slowly dwindle, the five protagonists must also deal with personal and family pressures caused by their prolonged absence from home—because once you’re on board with this project, you can’t leave. Each person is allowed one private 20 minute video conversation with their loved ones. Will the pull between their personal lives and their professional responsibilities break their focus and derail the investigation?
The conclusion of Wajdi Mouawad’s four-part cycle Le Sang des promesses (after Littoral/Tideline, Incendies/Scorched, and Forêts), Ciels offers a sharp contrast—in both form and content—to the other plays in the series, reversing everything they stood for: the importance of memory, the search for meaning, the pursuit of the infinite. In this final chapter, the playwright forgoes his characteristic lyrical and transcendent style and adopts the cadences of everyday speech, shaping a multi-layered narrative that blends video, music and text in a remarkable stage environment where the audience is both surrounded and scrutinized.
Sequestered in a maximum-security facility, five government agents are using state-of-the-art technology to monitor telephone conversations in a radius of several kilometres. Together with their counterparts in other parts of the world, they are trying to decipher an enigma. For several months now, they have been intercepting coded messages that lead them to believe that a terrorist strike of unprecedented scale is imminent…. but so far no one has been able to decode the messages and pinpoint when and where the attack will take place. As they race against the clock and their chances of success slowly dwindle, the five protagonists must also deal with personal and family pressures caused by their prolonged absence from home—because once you’re on board with this project, you can’t leave. Each person is allowed one private 20 minute video conversation with their loved ones. Will the pull between their personal lives and their professional responsibilities break their focus and derail the investigation?
The conclusion of Wajdi Mouawad’s four-part cycle Le Sang des promesses (after Littoral/Tideline, Incendies/Scorched, and Forêts), Ciels offers a sharp contrast—in both form and content—to the other plays in the series, reversing everything they stood for: the importance of memory, the search for meaning, the pursuit of the infinite. In this final chapter, the playwright forgoes his characteristic lyrical and transcendent style and adopts the cadences of everyday speech, shaping a multi-layered narrative that blends video, music and text in a remarkable stage environment where the audience is both surrounded and scrutinized.