Gildas Milin's Toboggan: A Dark Farce on Elderly Poverty

Gildas Milin's play Toboggan, created at the Théâtre national de Strasbourg in November 2012, tours France in spring 2013. The title references the Japanese term 'society toboggan,' describing the irreversible social decline of aging workers who turn to crime to get imprisoned for shelter and food. In Japan, crimes by those over 65 have surged, making up nearly 20% of the prison population. Milin's futuristic farce follows a gang of elderly individuals—afflicted with blindness, deafness, arthritis, and Alzheimer's—who capture a thirty-something man and attempt to beat him to death to secure a long sentence. Their incompetence turns violence into grotesque comedy, with stress-management Tai Chi and nursery rhymes. The play employs layered narration: an investigator studying the 'toboggan phenomenon' and a somnambulant cosplayer reciting telescopic poems. Visual inserts by artist Elvire Caillon feature colorful forms depicting homeless figures and a world map. Milin's directorial technique, developed since his 1995 piece L'Ordalie, uses 'desynchronization' exercises that separate text, movement, and space, allowing actors to perform as an orchestra. The text is published by Actes Sud – Papiers. Performances include Foix (March 29–April 6, 2013), Amiens (April 8–9), Lorient (April 11–12), and Paris/Saint-Denis (December 2013).