American Dream

French director Elisabeth Marie and Scarface Ensemble team visit KET for the fourth time (Oedipus at Colonus / 2013, Margarita, Penthesilia, Io / 2014, Akreofilo / 2017) to present Nicoleta Esinencu’s play “American Dream”.

“American Dream” begins with the dream of a Moldovan student to participate in a summer program of studying and working called “Summer Work & Travel”. It is a well-known program that offers foreign students the opportunity to visit the United States in the summer and make some money. The dream becomes a nightmare as the heroine is forced to work illegally in Moscow to pay off the debts her family has accumulated in order to finance her stay in America.

The text, inspired by a true story, describes a society that wants to be presented as an ideal one and that promises easy access to the diverse goods of advertising. This American dream claims that it can give everyone the right to freedom of expression, to secure food, and ultimately to world peace.

Elisabeth Marie
After studying in Strasbourg, she taught French for three years. She is also conducting personal research on photography and audio writing. She develops creative tools at the crossroads of radio, theater, and cinema. She works for the “Panorama Matinales” and “Nuits Magnétiques” broadcasts on France Culture. In 1979 she founded the Scarface Ensemble team, along with Bernard Bloch and Ismail Safwan. In 1985 she settled in Mulhouse, where she stages performances that combine music with theatrical research. The repertoire of her performances touches upon social issues and consists of either her own texts or those of contemporary and classical authors (Fassbinder, Alloula, Heiner Müller, LeRoi Jones, Godard, Perec, Plato, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Gorki, Dostoevsky etc.). Her performances are produced in decentralized structures, in the Ile-de-France region and outside France. Many of the shows are also held in non-theatrical venues, such as apartments, libraries, prisons, public squares and factory canteens.

*The play is in greek and french (with greek subtitles).

With the support of the municipality of Strasbourg, the region Grend est, and the organisation Spedidam.