Joël Pommerat's Revolutionary Epic 'Ça ira (1) – fin de Louis' Returns

Joël Pommerat's immersive play 'Ça ira (1) – fin de Louis' reenacts the French Revolution from 1789 to 1790, stripping away historical costumes and trompe-l'œil to create a raw, contemporary political drama. The production, staged in a traditional Italian-style theater, blends actors with the audience, using full lighting to transform the space into a democratic battleground. Pommerat abandons his signature chiaroscuro aesthetics to focus on the mechanics of revolution, drawing from archival sources, Michelet's texts, images of Ceausescu's overthrow, and historian Sophie Wahnich's work on revolutionary emotions. The play features a cast of fourteen, including Saadia Bentaëb, Yannick Choirat, and Yvain Julliard, with scenography by Eric Soyer. The title references both the revolutionary song and Michel Delpech's 'Marianne était jolie,' while the king, played by Julliard, echoes 'Ça ira' as a mantra of resilience. The 4-hour-30-minute performance, first created in 2016 at Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre, is now on tour across France and Francophone regions, including Amiens, Brussels, Saint-Étienne du Rouvray, Rennes, Ollioules, and Calais. Critics note the production has grown darker and more frantic, mirroring the exhaustion of the deputies in the Tennis Court Oath. Pommerat aims to question whether democracy has evolved since 1789, concluding that the Republic remains a permanent revolution, constantly at risk from itself.