The O'Sec collective set itself a challenge: to create a play featuring four actresses performing Anne Berest's monologue entitled La visite (The Visit).
The play illustrates how the arrival of a newborn profoundly changes a woman's identity, with Odile Canovas, Sylvie Hubsch, Estelle Michel and Christine Billard.
The play depicts an audience visiting a newborn baby, with four actresses on stage embodying different facets of the same woman, internally divided by the contradictions of motherhood:
The maternal mother: representing maternal instinct, unconditional love and devotion to the child
The mother-wife: symbolising the marital relationship, sexual desire dissociated from reproduction, and the transformation of the couple's dynamic
The scientific mother: bringing a rational, analytical and pragmatic perspective on physical and emotional changes
The feminist mother: questioning the social and personal implications of motherhood and fighting against traditional expectations
Through these four characters, the play explores the inner discourse of a woman who has become a mother—her contradictions, fears, fatigue, and confusion. Despite this emotional turmoil, she tries to maintain a composed façade in front of visitors and the public. The play illustrates how the arrival of a newborn profoundly disrupts a woman's identity, causing conflict between her different roles and aspirations, while showing the psychological complexity of contemporary motherhood.
The play depicts an audience visiting a newborn baby, with four actresses on stage embodying different facets of the same woman, internally divided by the contradictions of motherhood:
The maternal mother: representing maternal instinct, unconditional love and devotion to the child
The mother-wife: symbolising the marital relationship, sexual desire dissociated from reproduction, and the transformation of the couple's dynamic
The scientific mother: bringing a rational, analytical and pragmatic perspective on physical and emotional changes
The feminist mother: questioning the social and personal implications of motherhood and fighting against traditional expectations
Through these four characters, the play explores the inner discourse of a woman who has become a mother—her contradictions, fears, fatigue, and confusion. Despite this emotional turmoil, she tries to maintain a composed façade in front of visitors and the public. The play illustrates how the arrival of a newborn profoundly disrupts a woman's identity, causing conflict between her different roles and aspirations, while showing the psychological complexity of contemporary motherhood.
