Caroline Guiela Nguyen

Caroline Guiela Nguyen, a French director of the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, writer, and producer, subtly blends theatre and collective memory. His dramatic works draw inspiration from real life and personal stories, bringing together actors and actresses from a variety of social, geographical, cultural and spiritual backgrounds. SAIGON was presented in 2017 at the 71st Avignon Festival. FRATERNITÉ, Conte fantastique is the second instalment in the FRATERNITÉ cycle, which currently comprises two other works: the short film Les Engloutis (2021) and the play L’Enfance, la Nuit, created at the Schaubühne in 2022.

The guest artist Caroline Guiela Nguyen is unveiling a new production: MELODRAME, a truth and memory commission for women and children under French colonial rule in Indochina, conceived as an act of lamentation whose sole aim is to bring to life a contemporary representation of historical violence. This project will be neither a trial nor a work of fiction; it will be a new political space.

“Regarding pain, it is important to warn you that it will provoke a conflict of ‘reality’ within this framework. Indeed, the violence of the story has left such a mark on them that even today, when they tell it to me, it feels as though I can touch History, as though it were unfolding right there, before us. Some might speak of trauma or reminiscence, but as I am wary of the diagnoses applied to my family, I would rather speak to you about the Vietnamese language, for in this language there is no conjugation. Neither past nor future. One could therefore say that, whatever happens, everything is always in the present.” (Caroline Guiela Nguyen, MELODRAME, 2026)