After supporting La Mouette, the Francis Kurkdjian Endowment Fund is renewing its collaboration with the Collectif MxM for their work on the very first play written by Tchekhov this time titled: Sur l'autre rive.

Known for his reformist theatrical projects, Cyril Teste takes advantage of the staging of image, sound and light, done on La Mouette, for the new Sur l'autre rive project.

"Written when he was only 17, Sur l'autre rive was not published during his lifetime. Reworked countless times, submitted to the greatest Russian actress of the time who refused to play it on the pretext that the main character smoked and drank, Sur l'autre rive was put back in a drawer. It was discovered 40 years after Tchekhov's death.

An unfinished youthful play, immoral, abundant, romantic, choral, in which the destinies of several generations intersect, Sur l'autre rive is an immense challenge. Everywhere there is overflow, everywhere there is madness: it is as if there were too much alcohol, too much smoke, too much desire. We imagine the show as an endless party, in real time and in a single setting. There will be music, lots of music, bodies dancing, kissing, and dying.

But Sur l'autre rive is not just a party. It is also an extremely deep reflection on heritage, the legacy between generations and, by extension, the relationship with the past. It is not only about the present and the urgency of bodies, but also about what connects to history, to what came before, of which the father is an allegory. The original title of the play is 'Fatherlessness and A Play Without a Title', and its characters are constantly asking themselves what they can do with an inheritance from which they would like to escape. This shows how important the notion of generation is here."

Cyril Teste