DRIFT – residency and premiere in Montpellier, at Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3
DRIFT – residency and premiere in Montpellier, at Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3
As part of the FEMMINICITY project, a debate-performance about the role of women in public life and their political representation was created and performed by the students of the Master’s program in Creation and Performing Arts at Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3.
The first phase, a workshop (June 2025), was co-animated by the three guest artists. It functioned primarily as an introduction to the project and as a time for the participants to become acquainted with one another. This first meeting was centered in understanding how the University MA’s students in Performing Arts Creation were informed and from which angle to the feminist movement and the artist could guide them to understand feminism not only from a personal experience but from a global angle. This face also served to questioned the power relations in the world and how the play could feel more horizontal. All of this was achieved through individual exercises.
This was followed by two creation periods, in January 2026 and February 2026, with partener artists Iwona Konecka (Poland, partner Kobietostan) and Bojan Milosavljevic (Serbia, partner Trupa Drz ne daj). During these latter phases, the work became more directly focused on the development of the final piece. Time was divided between the elaboration of political reflection and the artistic construction of the performance.
A workshop was organized with Master’s students, opening a series of fundamental political questions:
• What would a new international feminist political party require in order to emerge today?
• Who would be willing to found such a party in the future?
• What commitments and internal compromises would be necessary within such a structure?
• Who would this party address? Women only?
• Why should women participate in political life?
From these questions, an initial artistic concept was developed: three women from different political backgrounds feel the necessity to create a new feminist political party.
Two parallel working paths were then established:
a) Research lab for Political Reflection
• Classes and seminars on how laws and political measures are conceived: their intended audiences, the elements taken into consideration during their drafting, and the strategic construction of political publics.
• The sharing of bibliographic material on feminism and its various historical and geographical interpretations.
• Sharing and working with historical feminist figures from France, Europe and the world (as an axe to learn history, and opening a wider feminist perspective)
• A meeting with a former Member of the European Parliament (Marie-Christine Vergiat), organized with the Master’s students, to discuss: the functioning of the European Parliament, the broader landscape of political tendencies across Europe, major political differences between European countries, and the specific challenges of being a woman in political office.
b) Artistic Explorations
• A workshop exploring theatre-conference as a performative tool for constructing political discourse within the piece, and for inviting the audience into debate.
• Improvisation sessions to test narrative, rhetorical, and performative strategies.
February 2026 (2th to 13th) — Rehearsal and Public Engagement
The second period was dedicated to artistical exploration, rehearsals and refinement of the piece. Within this workshop the material for the improvisations and work were famous/important political speeches, jingle-songs as a tool to pass a political message, the figure of the “joker”. Theater improvisations where prepared following and taking inspiration from:
• Theater of the oppressed
• Conference theater
• Long tables practices for discussion
Two open rehearsals (06 and 10 february) - were organized in order to gather audience feedback and to train the performers in public debate.
12 February 2026 — Premiere D.R.I.F.T.
Concept and direction: Bojan Milosavljević
Dramaturgy and direction: Jennifer Lauro Mariani
Choreography and direction: Iwona Konecka
Performed by: Sarah Raynal, Carla Clavreul, Milane Lagrange, Marie Payan
Producer: Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3
Executive producer: Ximena Primera
Following the premiere, a Long Table discussion was organized.
The Long Table is a participatory discussion format developed within performance and discursive practices. It consists of a single large table placed at the center of the space, where anyone from the audience may sit down and join the conversation at any time. Participants may enter or leave freely, replacing one another, thus allowing the discussion to remain dynamic and collectively constructed.
We chose this format because it dissolves the hierarchical separation between performers and audience, replacing it with a horizontal structure of exchange. Rather than organizing a conventional post-performance Q&A session, the Long Table created a temporary public forum in which spectators became active contributors to the political reflection initiated by the piece.
