Les Derniers jours de l'humanité ・ Comédie-Française

Karl Kraus and David Lescot. The first who observed Europe tearing itself apart from Vienna. The second who has placed war and the great upheavals of mankind at the heart of his work.

Karl Kraus / David Lescot.
The first, a playwright, poet and satirical journalist who observed Europe tearing itself apart from Vienna, capital of an Austro-Hungarian Empire that would be wiped off the map in 1918. The second, a theatre practitioner –variously as playwright, director, and composer– who has placed history, war and the great upheavals of mankind at the heart of his work. Between 1915 and 1917, Karl Kraus wrote The Last Days of Mankind, a monumental, multiform play, neither synthesis nor invective, in which he leaves it to his era to accuse itself, to dishonour itself, and to the multiple parties responsible to point the finger at themselves. From The Central Commission for Children, about the summer camps for the children of Jewish communists, to Those Who Remain, based on the testimonies of two survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto, David Lescot constantly questions our memory. Regarding Kraus, he states, “The Last Days of Mankind has become a document for us, a valuable archive, and due to its poetic dimension and the scope of his project, it is also much more than that. Imagination seconds observation in this play; it is the work of an observant imagination, equal to the event it describes, the greatest text to come out of the First World War.”

Creative team

Conception et mise en scène : David Lescot
Traduction : Jean-Louis Besson et Heinz Schwarzinger
Scénographie : Alwyne de Dardel
Costumes : Sylvette Dequest
Lumières : Laïs Foulc
Vidéo : Serge Meyer
Conseiller artistique aux images d’archives : Laurent Véray
Maquillages et coiffures : Catherine Nicolas
Collaboratrice à la mise en scène : Charlotte Lagrange
Assistante aux costumes : Magali Perrin-Toinin