Les Damnés ・ Comédie-Française

Ivo van Hove revisited Les Damnés [The Damned], this sharply drawn chronicle of a family of industrialists during the 1933 Nazi seizure of power in Germany. He sees it is the “celebration of evil” in which ideological depravity and family perversions combine.

“When I was in Rome last week, I went to see your Caduta degli dei and, although I follow your language very badly, I was very impressed by the strength, stature and insolence of the work. [...] The combination of passions, all these bodies, this mixture of things from contemporary history, money, property, loneliness, politics and ambition, reminded me of some of the great works I have read and sometimes worked on. It only made me appreciate your film all the more”. In these words, which he addressed in 1969 to Luchino Visconti, Jean Vilar already highlighted the universality of The Damned, this bond with the “great works”, the damned of antiquity, the house of Atreus, Thyestes or Medea. Visconti said he was Inspired by Shakespeare, and especially by Macbeth; for his part, Ivo van Hove takes us back to the ancient tragedies.
For his first staging with the Troupe in 2016, the director revisited this sharply drawn chronicle of a family of industrialists during the 1933 Nazi seizure of power in Germany. He sees it is the “celebration of evil” in which ideological depravity and family perversions combine. The July 2016 premiere in Avignon left a powerful impression, so strongly does this infernal machine resonate with our contemporary ears. “In the archaism of the staging device, in which all the actors and technicians are presented to us as an ancient chorus, in the suffering nudity of bodies and spilt blood, we are given a glimpse into hell”, comments Éric Ruf.

On Tour
NEW YORK Park Avenue Armory JULY 2018
LONDON Barbican JUNE 2019
ANTWERP Stadsschouwburg Antwerpen SEPT 2019

Creative team

Directed by: Ivo van Hove
Sets and lights: Jan Versweyveld
Costumes: An D’Huys
Video: Tal Yarden
Music and sounds: Eric Sleichim
Dramaturgy: Bart Van den Eynde
Assistant stage manager: Laurent Delvert
Assistant scenography: Roel Van Berckelaer
Assistant lights: François Thouret
Assistant sounds: Lucas Lelièvre

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