Ça Ira: political theatre with the allure of House of Cards #HF16

Over four hours long Ça ira (1) Fin de Louis, a performance by French director Joël Pommerat, to be seen this weekend at the Holland Festival. He reconstructed events in France between 1789 and 1794, better known as The French Revolution. What begins as a sometimes hard-to-follow, animated history lesson culminates in an impressive 'whodunnit', balancing between re-enactment and live television.

French people talk a lot and passionately and initially the debate about the possibility of a National Assembly to establish a parliament where all walks of life are represented in one chamber, pretty dry fare. Interesting for those who like political history, but not necessarily exciting to perform in the theatre. But gradually, even the audience becomes captivated by the rhythm and precision with which Pommerat shapes the different positions and steps in what in retrospect turned out to be a historical debate on citizenship, co-determination and national governance.

The many actors, aided by a local claque, together clapping, cheering and shouting from the auditorium arouse a sense of political urgency, defined for once not by sensational images and short quotes on camera, but by extensive debate. A debate based on extensive archival research, but framed in a contemporary way: with microphones, press conferences and bespoke suits. The members of the Assembly fighting over procedures and whether the Assembly does have to get involved in drafting rights for all citizens, for example (later becoming The Rights of Man), while from Paris, chaos grows. As the first lynchings and beheadings are reported, the various protagonists roll across the stage fighting with each other.

A bizarre irony arises because, on the one hand, the public knows how the situation has turned out - the aristocracy and the clergy will lose, even if the spokesmen of these cliques do not know it at the time; on the other hand, the language of the debate is designed in such a way that, from the very first moment, a parallel with today's France, or today's international politics, is inevitable. Then, too, there was a debt crisis, and then, too, the finance minister played a decisive role. At the same time, the way Louis XVI eventually made his appearance at the Assembly, routinely shaking hands with nervous security guards in his wake and triumphant film music over the speakers, typical of today's political spin. The back and forth in time produces sometimes hilarious, sometimes painful moments. For instance, a deserted soldier is eventually murdered by a member of a Paris neighbourhood committee.

The setting of Ça ira (1) Fin de Louis is monumental and alludes to that typical design in which not only in Brussels and Paris, but all over the world, power raises itself, be it an Olympic draw or a conference of political leaders. The City Theatre's frills, which can ultimately be traced back to the theatre tradition at Versailles, are wonderfully in keeping with this. The staging of the discussion becomes very lifelike through the engagement of the audience and the detailed playing out of the various roles in the debate, right down to the neighbourhood committee in a Parisian neighbourhood. Last night, Herman Tjeenk Willink and Frits Bolkenstein were in the audience, especially the former clearly amused.

Another clever intervention by Pommerat is the casting of quite a few actresses and a black actor as lead actors. This reminds you as a viewer that this emancipated and updated version, something like a Hamlet in jeans, is high-minded not only then but even now. While Obama was at Jimmy Fallon goodbye, the question is whether the US will have a female president or will have to enter the political stage with a horky multimillionaire.

Finally, the question of political violence is also played out beautifully. Not only do conservative forces continually seize upon chaos to push forward principled political issues, under the slogan that order must be established first, but revolutionary forces are also hit hard when the people, whose sovereignty they want to shape politically, take the law into their own hands and proceed to pillage and murder. All in all, political theatre of the highest order precisely because it shows the complexity of the democratic game, including the pitfalls, the underbelly and the double games.

At the end of the show, Louis XVI may turn out to be an unadulterated political player, which Ça ira (1) Fin de Louis gives the allure of a Netflix series à la House of Cards. It is to be hoped that also Ça ira-the sequel will be shown at the Holland Festival.