Tiphaine Raffier retrospective: metaphysical theater of weight and grace

A mini-retrospective of Tiphaine Raffier's early works, including La Chanson [reboot], France-Fantôme, La Réponse des Hommes, and Némésis, toured France in May 2023, coinciding with the premiere of Némésis at Ateliers Berthier. Raffier, a playwright, director, and actress, co-founded the collective Si vous pouviez lécher mon cœur with Julien Gosselin. Her theater explores ethical dilemmas, the visible and invisible, and the double motif. La Chanson (2012) debuted at Prémices festival in Lille, featuring three girls in Val d'Europe rehearsing an Abba song for a lookalike contest, ending in sacrifice. France-Fantôme, her third play, is a sci-fi set in the 25th century where transhumanism has emerged after a 'Ninth Scopic Revolution,' with memories stored in a machine called Démémoriel. It was staged at Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre in January 2023. Némésis adapts Philip Roth's last novel, following gym teacher Bucky Cantor during a polio epidemic in Newark and Indian Hill summer camp, starring Stuart Seide. Raffier's physical and metaphysical theater aims to transcend the stage, inspired by Gerhard Richter's stained glass in Cologne Cathedral.