La Parabole du seum [Parable of the sour]

Creation 2026 On tour this season

Parable of the sour

Photo credits: Marikel Lahana

La Parabole du seum* [Parable of the sour] is an attempt to survive.

An attempt that begins in the margins, from life experiences that resist the norm and what it crushes.
In the face of rising fascism—in the face of the fascism already among us—Rebecca Chaillon offers neither a program nor consolation. She shares an experience: that of human beings wrestling with a world too big, too heavy, too urgent, despite their yearning for lightness.
Between sky and earth, the roofs of Seine-Saint-Denis, department 93, are home to satellite dishes pointed at a faraway place that is full, fragmented, already occupied. A space marked by French colonial history, by the neglect of public service and organized relegation, but also by strategies for living that are constantly inventing techniques of survival.
Faced with materialist rationality and the monotheisms of the norm, power and purity, religious syncretism, hybrid beliefs, and secular rituals function as poetic and political resistance, ways of allowing the soul to breathe.
In La Parabole du seum [Parable of the sour], the sky is both the place from which disaster strikes—hurricanes, floods, so-called “natural” disasters, which always reveal the same fault lines and divisions, and the new territories of Western imperialism.
If the sky is raging and no longer empty, what space remains for us to project our beliefs?
Between gravity and lightness, Rebecca Chaillon composes a funny and fierce parable: if not a lesson, a parable of bitterness.

*Note on the french title La Parabole du seum [Parable of the sour]: In French, the word “parabole” means both “parable” and “satellite dish.” “Seum” is a French slang word said to derive from the Arabic word for “venom.” It is used to express feelings of anger, frustration, and bitterness. The title La Parabole du seum also refers to Octavia Butler's novel «Parable of the Sower», which is published in French as «La Parabole du Semeur» (note that “semeur” is very close phonetically to “seum”).

Artistic file

Text and direction Rébecca Chaillon
Co-direction Céline Champinot
With Yanis Boulahia, Hassan Gourniz, Loulie Houmed, Camille Léon-Fucien, Living Smile Vidya Nabila Mekkid, Julie Teuf
Set design Camille Riquier
Sound design Élisa Monteil
Video design and management Elisa Bernard
Light design Alexia Alexi
Costumes Solenne Capmas
General management (creation) Suzanne Péchenart
General and stage management (tour) Suzanne Péchenart, Marianne Joffre (alternately)
Light management Selma Yaker
Sound management Elisa Monteil, Justine Pommereau (alternately)
Intern in directing assistance Marie Delpit
Administration, production Élise Bernard, Manon Crochemort and Amandine Loriol
Production Direction & Development Mélanie Charreton / Bureau O.u.r.s.a M.I.n.o.r

Production : Compagnie Dans le ventre
Coproduction (in progress) : Théâtre Public de Montreuil - CDN, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles (BE), Wiener Festwochen (AT), Les Nuits de Fourvière - Lyon International Metropolis Festival, Comédie de Genève (CH), Dublin Theatre Festival (IE), tnba - Théâtre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Le Volcan - Scène nationale du Havre, La Criée - Théâtre National de Marseille, Carreau du Temple - cultural and sport institution of Paris, Le Maillon - Théâtre de Strasbourg - european stage, Théâtre Sorano - Scène conventionnée - Toulouse.

Coproduction supported by the cross-border program Interreg VI France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen - EMERGE: le Manège Maubeuge - Scène nationale transfrontalière, le phénix - Scène nationale de Valenciennes - Pôle Européen de Création, Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, Théâtre de Namur (BE) and Kunstencentrum VierNulVier - Ghent (BE).

A project selected by the platform Prospero NEW, co-funded by Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

The text was commissioned by the Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis (MC93) as part of Multitude, the Seine-Saint-Denis Intercultural Biennial.

With the support of Théâtre Léo Ferré – Aulnoye-Aymeries and of Générateur – Gentilly.

The Compagnie Dans le ventre is supported by the French Ministry of Culture (DRAC Hauts-de-France).

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