Brothers François and Christian Gremaud Stage Deafness and Resistance at Avignon Festival

At the Avignon Festival, brothers François and Christian Gremaud present "Mon frère," a show blending personal memoir with the history of deaf rights. Christian, born deaf, recounts his struggle for integration—endless audiology appointments, speech therapy, and workplace discrimination—using sign language while François translates orally. The performance emerged from François's creative block amid global anxiety and Christian's professional setbacks, including unfair dismissals and suspended unemployment benefits. The show traces the history of sign language from Plato's advocacy to Aristotle's dismissal, the Abbé de L'Épée's 1760 free school for the deaf in France, and the Deaf awakening in the 1970s in the US and Europe. Christian transforms into a Jedi fighting discrimination, blending political activism with humor. The production, staged without technology, is described as a political, poetic, and humorous act of resistance.