Les Veilleuses

Show & Culture

In French, a veilleuse is a night light, the kind that holds off the fear of the dark. It is also the word for those who stay awake for someone close who depends on them, outside any professional setting. In one apartment block, three windows remain lit, night after night. Behind them, Mina searches for her father, who keeps wandering off; Lou prepares her mother’s meal; Yvan stays by the side of his partner, who is nearing the end of his life. As the seasons pass, their daily lives brush against one another in the corridors, the lift, the laundry room, or on the roof, composing a choral story told almost entirely without words. After Is there life on Mars?, Héloïse Meire leaves the documentary form for a work of fiction shaped by workshops with family carers. Behind expressive full-face masks, five actors bring some ten characters to life in a visual language where the gestures of care unfold in all their humanity. Without grand speeches, this performance, with the feel of a graphic novel, reveals what plays out between the one who keeps watch and the one who is watched over: the silences, the taboos, the bonds that sometimes wear thin – and above all those that transform.