Inspired by Édouard Louis’s novel End with Eddy, Anna Smolar’s production examines the experience of systemic oppression and asks questions about loyalty to roots and social class.

In the world described by Édouard Louis, there is no room for being different and showing weakness, and every symptom of delicacy, ambition or dreams about something more and being someone else disappears under the weight of the dead bodies and red bricks that together create the scenery of a small town. Édouard’s return to the story of growing up in Eddy’s poor working-class family is an emancipatory gesture. It serves to erase the person who has experienced persecution and lack of acceptance from the environment. Édouard erases so that he can rewrite his story from scratch.

Did you have the right to leave your family?

Did you have the right to run away from where you grew up?

Did you have the right to give up yourself?

Did you have the right to erase your name and surname?

Did you have the right to write that you were poor?

Did you have the right to desire boys?

Did you have the right to change your social status?