“Le Choc” (The Shock) – an oratorio by Robert Pouderou
Robert Pouderou, a loyal friend of Moussa and Odette, has just written not a new “book” but an oratorio.
It is strange for a writer as prolific as Robert Pouderou to turn to this theatrical form. But words sing too. They weep too… And with music and words intertwined, they speak to us of the crimes against Humanity that men are capable of committing, and of the Memory that has fallen to us and that we try to honour with our website.
This oratorio is a real “shock”! You must read it and absorb the sentences that precede it.
« La tendance générale serait aujourd’hui de dire : « Oh, allez, c’est du passé et ça n’intéresse plus personne… Le monde est comme ça et on ne peut rien y faire. Bon, et puis merde, on s’en tape, non ? Bien sûr, comme on dit, bien sûr. Seulement, on peut aussi voir les choses autrement et se dire que les morts nous regardent toujours implacablement et attendent que nous reconnaissions notre rôle dans leur assassinat. »
Harold PINTER
“Guardian”, December 4, 1996
“Forgiveness died in the death camps”
Vladimir JANKÉLÉVITCH
Le Choc was rehearsed and performed in 2005 by Year 10 pupils (girls and boys) of the Collège Montaigne in Périgueux, who were taking part in the national Resistance competition.
The author, who also directed the piece, was advised and supported by Peggy Salabert (French teacher) and Jean-Paul Bedouin (history teacher).
The piece can also be performed by adults
The pupils in the first production:
Antoine, Aymeric, Aurélie, Ayoub, Amandine, Cédric, Clément, Damien, Delphine, Jonathan, Julien, Maxime (Hanou), Maxime (Tronche), Melissa, Marine, Morgane, Pauline, Romain, Séverine, Tiphaine.
Robert Pouderou has written seventy-two plays that have been performed in Paris, in the French regions and abroad (notably Italy, Japan, Belgium, Switzerland…). Several have been broadcast on Radio France and Swiss French-language radio – SACD Radio Prize in 2002. He is a novelist, television screenwriter and theatre director. In 1994 he founded the festival “La mémoire des humbles” (18th edition in 2012) in the Périgord. He also directed the docudrama “Liberté nous voilà”.