La Parabole du seum
Rébecca Chaillon
La Parabole du seum is an attempt to survive.
An attempt that begins on the margins, from life experiences that resist the norm, and how that norm crushes us.
In the light of rising fascism (and the fascism that is already among us), Rébecca Chaillon offers neither a program nor consolation. She shares an experience: that of people struggling with a world that’s too big, too heavy, too urgent, despite their longing for lightness.
Between heaven and earth, the rooftops of Seine-Saint-Denis (department 93) house satellite dishes aimed at a distant place that is full, fragmented, and already occupied. A place marked by French colonial history, by the neglect of public services and organized marginalization, but also by strategies for living that are constantly inventing new techniques of survival.
Confronted with materialistic rationality and the monotheistic norms of power and purity, religious syncretism, hybrid beliefs, and secular rituals function as methods of poetic and political resistance, ways to let the soul breathe.
In La Parabole du seum, heaven is both the place from which disasters strike (hurricanes, floods, so-called ‘natural’ disasters, which always uncover 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 to project our beliefs onto?
Between gravity and lightness, Rébecca Chaillon composes a funny and fierce parable: if not a lesson, then at least a parable of bitterness.
Montreuil, January
Note regarding the title La Parabole du seum: In French, the word ‘parabole’ means both ‘parable’ and ‘satellite dish’. ‘Seum’ is a word from French slang that is said to derive from the Arabic word for ‘poison’ or ‘venom’. It is used to express feelings of anger, frustration, and bitterness. The title La Parabole du seum also refers to Octavia Butler’s novella ‘Parable of the Sower’, which was published in French under the title: ‘La Parabole du Semeur’. (Note that ‘semeur’ is phonetically close to ‘seum’.)
• Rébecca Chaillon is a director, writer, performer, member of the RER Q collective, and Scorpio-ascendant Taurus. Activism, debate, and being naked on stage are second nature to her. Her artistic work revolves around theatre, performance, and poetry, exploring dominance-based relationships and the fight against discrimination. She loves working around desires and acts of violence that affect bodies, with plenty of love, humour, and food. Her company, Dans Le Ventre, founded in 2006, aims to be a platform for the artistic exploration of marginalized identities in our society. From a highly personal approach to writing, in which the themes are both intimate and political, she has created works that have taken a variety of forms, including: L’Estomac dans la peau (2011), a solo performance about bulimia; Où la chèvre est attachée, il faut qu’elle broute (2018), an athletic and artistic piece exploring discrimination through women's football; Carte noire nommée désir (2021), a performative piece about the construction of desires in Black women; Plutôt vomir que faillir (2022), about puberty as a way to question the world made by and for adults; and more recently, La Gouineraie (2025), a performance co-signed by Salderan, that deconstructs the myth surrounding the traditional rural family, which has also been performed at Kaaitheater.
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 ⎸ Rébecca Chaillon is represented by L'Arche - Agence théâtrale. www.arche-editeur.com ⎸ production Compagnie Dans le ventre ⎸ coproduction 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. ⎸ cop-roduction supported by the cross-border program Interreg VI France-WallonieVlaanderen - 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). ⎸ 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
