A documentary-based theatre work by Tiago Rodrigues, built from real testimonies of humanitarian workers. Through layered storytelling and live performance, it reflects on the limits of action, responsibility, and what it means to try to change the world. Performed in multiple languages, it brings intimate human stories onto the stage without claiming to explain them.

About the Show

Created in 2022 at the Comédie de Genève, this work is based on interviews with members of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières. Rather than reconstructing events, the performance focuses on how these stories are told—placing the act of witnessing at its center.

The piece follows humanitarian workers moving between crisis zones and everyday life, confronting situations where moral clarity is often uncertain. Their stories reveal both the urgency of action and the awareness that their efforts cannot fundamentally change the course of the world. Instead, what remains is the attempt to alleviate suffering and “buy time” before disaster strikes.

Rodrigues constructs the text through a process of listening, transcription, rewriting, and rehearsal, allowing real testimonies and theatrical language to exist in dialogue. The result is a work that blends documentation and fiction, where storytelling itself becomes the subject.

About the Director

Tiago Rodrigues is a highly influential contemporary European theatre director, playwright, and actor, and currently serves as the artistic director of the Festival d’Avignon. He co-founded Mundo Perfeito in 2003 and has received multiple international honors, including the European Theatre Realities Award, the Pessoa Prize, and the French Order of Arts and Letters. His work often blends real events with fiction, merging personal storytelling with political and social reflection.

Cast

Why It’s Worth Seeing

This is not a conventional narrative-driven play, but a work built on voices, memory, and testimony. It offers a rare theatrical perspective on humanitarian work—not as heroism, but as a complex, often unresolved reality.

For audiences, it’s less about following a plot and more about sitting with the weight of these stories as they unfold. The stripped-back staging and focus on language place attention firmly on the performers and the narratives they carry, creating a space that is reflective rather than explanatory.

Seating Chart