​​“I was born in 1967, twenty-two years after the end of the Second World War.

Here, in France, I am part of a happy generation, which certainly is today confronted with terrorism, but which does not live the pangs and the torments of a war.

I am aware of living in a relative and fragile peace. So I felt the need to meet these women and men who weren't so lucky...

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From 2002, relying on myhistorian training, so I started this cycle of theatrical readings entitled:

“Man in War”.

I wanted to put the human being back at the center of this project, the human being with his strength and hisfragility, the human being who, in the din of battles, is revealed to himself, who draws unexplored resources from within, who elevates or sells his soul, who transforms, who survives, who dies...

 

I have defined a period: from 1870 to the present day. Taking the first Franco-German clash as a starting point seemed judicious to me. This little-known conflict is, in fact, the first of modern wars and undoubtedly the matrix of the tragic events of the 20th century.

I directed my research towards documents as diverse astestimonials, letters, poems, novels and literary short stories, tracts, political speeches, interviews...

 

My attention has been drawn to these illustrious or unknown voices, which are the sensitive and precise reflections of a given time, where great and small history inexorably mingle, where the excesses and anxieties of societies in perpetual motion emerge.

Ensuring that these often neglected or forgotten lives find a new existence thanks to the theater also means trying to better understand the complexities of Man and the world around us...”

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Éric Cénat, director and actor