The creator of the États généraux de la Culture, who died in 2017, worked tirelessly to highlight the importance of culture as a crucible for social cohesion.“Speaking the words of Jack Ralite is an act of resistance, declares the actor, a resistance to all renunciations. Cultural, political or poetic. A full and generous resistance that draws its strength from a sensitive understanding of human beings. A resistance armed only with the spoken word and the clairvoyance of the poets. Their voices, which we no longer know how to hear. A companionship that lifts us up to higher things. Vitez spoke of the actor following in the poet’s footsteps, like a walker in the sand who places his feet in the footprints of the person walking in front of him. So that time does not erase them. I try to walk the paths of all Jack Ralite’s struggles, of all his acts of defiance, I slip into his thinking like into a suit of light At every crossroads I meet Aragon, Char, Hugo, Vilar, Saint-John Perse, Baudelaire... Whenever asked the recurrent question: ‘Why do you write?’, the poet’s answer will always be simply: ‘To live better’.”Christian Gonon invites us to discover the man, his commitments and his poetry through this adaptation of the book by Karelle Ménine, an anthology of Ralite’s interviews, texts and public speeches.

Show created at the Studio-Théâtre (Paris) in 2020

The text is published by Solitaires Intempestifs.
Production Comédie-Française

FRANCE
6-7 DEC

Concepted and performed by: Christian Gonon
Lights: Philippe Lagrue
Original music: Jérôme Destours
Artistic collaboration: Alain Lenglet

With the voices of the actors and actresses of the troupe and the academy of the Comédie-Française