In turbulent times, those three seemingly simple words-- Faith, Hope and Charity--carry a lot of weight and resonate with people from all walks of life. The human nature of the stories that Zeldin tells in a dynamic way is perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of his theatre works.
Zeldin who is an associate director at the Royal National Theatre in London, the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe in Paris and Centre Dramatique National de Normandie in Rouen--and soon to be announced resident artist at the Grand Theatre in Luxembourg--is famous for his socially charged and conscience gripping theatrical productions that zoom into a broad range of issues spanning public, professional, communal and family life.
Born to a Russian-Jewish father and an Australian mother, the director went through the French section of the European School system in the UK and currently lives in Paris, not to mention his residency in Cairo Egypt some years back. Some notable awards Zeldin has won include the Arts Foundation Fellowship in the UK for literature and the recent jury prize at the Belgrade festival among others.
In June, his French play A Death in the Family (Une mort dans la famille) together with the Odéon Theatre gathered an audience at the Grand Theatre.
He is back in Luxembourg with the final part of his Inequalities trilogy--Faith, Hope and Charity--which reflects several months of research and brings to the fore a diverse and dynamic cast, made up of 10 actors, who all flew in from the UK for the performance.
“I love coming to Luxembourg. I think that Luxembourg is a really unique place because it's such a crossroad of different cultures and different languages.”
The trilogy: telling relatable stories
“They’re stories of resilience and overcoming and hope and love in our times. They focus on people living against this really aggressive system that is so prevalent in the UK and I guess across Western liberal democracies.”
Each play is established in a peculiar setting. The first part of the trilogy Beyond Caring was staged back in 2016 during the first edition of TalentLAB in Luxembourg and delves into the lives of four cleaners on night shifts with zero-hour work contracts in a meat factory.
“Beyond caring was I think the first play anyone performed in this room that we're in [he says referring to the backstage where the interview was conducted]. So I love this space. It's one of my favourite spaces in the world to do theatre.” says Zeldin.
The second part of the trilogy, Love, was set in a shelter and encapsulates all the chaos and drama that comes under these living conditions.
The third and final part, Faith, Hope and Charity, which has been on tour across Europe--like all his other plays--will be staged for the first time in Luxembourg. It is set in a community centre on the verge of closing. An intriguing attribute of the play is that the director devised a smart way to augment the rich diversity of the cast with some of the people who’ve lived in these circumstances.
“A lot of what we found in the research went into the play. When I was writing, I was really thinking a lot about real life things that I'd experienced and met and encountered in my research,” he explains.
“I went to like 20 community centres around the UK, worked with 100 different people, several homeless choirs like the one that you'll see in the play, several soup kitchens,” says Zeldin explaining the intricate factors that inspired the writing and production.
Human dignity is really at the heart of this play…
Beyond a mere act
For Zeldin, theatre goes beyond putting on an act. “I think the role of the theatre is to really show us behind the mirror of our time what it feels like to be a human being today,” he explains.
But beyond this, present-day events can already give us “a glimpse of the future. What would the world [look like] if we really valued human dignity?” he asks. “I think that a play like this has such a European aesthetic. It's informed by so many things that I've seen in Europe and my work as a theatre maker.”
At the same time, “theatre can be a way to create relationships and partnerships in society. That's really what I wanted to do with this.”
Faith, Hope and Charity will be staged for three days from Thursday 27 October until Saturday 29 October at the Grand Theatre, and starts at 8pm on each day. to register.