Les Treteaux de France Presents Racine's BRITTANICUS

The New York Times recently highlighted Les Tréteaux de France, a theater company in France that has begun to return to live performances.

The company recently put on a production of Racine's "Britannicus," featuring seven actors donning face masks.

Director Robin Renucci said that actors began rehearsing with masks in May, when the lockdown in France ended.

Renucci said that the masks can become damp and stick to the skin when performers speak a lot, so each cast member goes through four or five of them over a two-hour performance. They have also experimented with various materials for the masks, but most stick to cotton.

Read more on The New York Times .

The plot of Britannicus is a takeover taken from Roman history. This coup allowed the emancipation and the affirmation of a personality, that of Nero, future megalomaniac emperor, placed on the throne by the maneuvers of his mother, Agrippina. In Racine's tragedy, political decisions are intertwined with the libidinal impulses of Nero, as a young adult, with his brutal feeling for Junie, his brother's bride, Britannicus, "beautiful, without adornments, in the simple. device / With a beauty that has just been torn from sleep The struggles for political power and his burgeoning passion reveal the true nature of Nero and his shift towards his deep personality. Racine creates complex characters who give uncompromising vision of human nature.

Robin Renucci's staging, in a luxurious and stripped-down scenography, abandons theatrical distances for a very concrete, even violent game, which highlights the harshness of political conflicts, the mafia versatility of family alliances and sexist violence and sexual. For the director, Britannicus is a topical piece, captivating and lively like a series. The spectators, placed as close as possible to the actors, are kept in suspense.

Learn more about the production at http://www.treteauxdefrance.com/les-spectacles/en-preparation/britannicus.