Sleeping Child [L’Enfant Do]

She is a teacher; he is unemployed. They live in a quiet suburb. They have a child, a son called “L’Enfant Do” who is named after the famous French lullaby. The child has a big wise bear who talks to him. Generations of family members intermingle and discuss the events of the past, as the grandfathers toss the bear to each other. The paternal grandmother, a Sephardi named Rose, feeds everyone with meatballs, made with love. The maternal grandfather, an old Ashkenazi Jew named Max, is sick and disillusioned. He tells stories of orcs, and recounts a tale of peasants who once rescued a child from a train to save him from being “branded.” The themes of the play include Jewish identity in the aftermath of the Holocaust, and the preservation and passing on of memories. Stories of persecution are told with a smile, but the question is, should these stories be passed on? Should the child know what happened in the past?

Format: Full-length play

Cast Size: 4M/2F

Running Time: 2 hours

Character breakdown:

Characters:
Max
Rose
She
He
The bear
The child
With: François Berleand, Chantal Neuwirth, Olga Grumberg, Jonathan Zaccaiï, Alexandre Aubry, and Philippe Le Gall.

Original or Prominent Production:
September 10, 2002; Theatre Hébertot, Paris; directed by Jean-Michel Ribes. The first scenes were written at the request of France Culture and performed at the Theatre d’Avignon in 1995.

Original Source Material: BNF - Richelieu - Typescript, 1995–1998. 4-COL-250(293) - Typescript, 2002. 4-COL-250(294) - Scène 3. Typescript, [no date]. 4-COL-250(295).

Original Language: French

Publisher:

Arles: Actes Sud-Papiers, 2002.

Experience(s) Chronicled: Concentration and Extermination Camps | Survivors and Subsequent Generations | The Ghettos