Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In WHO KILLED MY FATHER, Édouard Louis’ further excavates societal homophobia, only to uncover unexpected empathy

• By drediman
• May 31, 2022
• No Comments

I recently had a chance to take in the solo stage adaptation of Édouard Louis’ Who Killed My Father at St. Ann’s Warehouse. The production – which comes by way of Berlin’s Schaubühne and Théâtre de la Ville in Paris – is based on Louis’ sociological memoir of the same name. In fact, Who Killed My Father is the third in a series that began with The End of Eddy and continued with History of Violence (the fist two entries in the trilogy have also been adapted for the stage). Collectively, these works have expended considerable effort in excavating societal homophobia, particularly from Louis’ first hand experiences as a queer youth and young adult.

In The Death of Eddy, Louis investigates whether the abuse and harassment he experienced in his childhood as a result of his sexuality are the product of the rural mindset. When the very bigotry he’s been trying to flea from horrifically reveals itself in the urban capital of Paris – as harrowingly chronicled in History of Violence – we know that Louis’ story and intellectual musings haven’t come to an end. Which brings us to Who Killed My Father, his most broadly scathing work to date. By placing blame on the larger systems (political, governmental) in place not only for homophobia but all of society’s ills (including his father’s increasingly insurmountable health and employment troubles), he manages to find unexpected empathy towards those who have done him ill in the past, particularly his brutally homophobic father. His views also seem directionally consistent with many a drastically-positioned social movement of recent times.

It’s appropriate that Louis himself would star in the stage version of Who Killed My Father, which seems ultimately a culminating manifesto rather than a traditional memoir (although there is a considerable amount of flashbacks in the work). For all its simmering revolutionary sentiment, the performance – mostly in French, with a single affecting passage in English – is a slow-burn that draws you in with its steady gaze. As a performer, Louis is disarmingly candid and seems comfortable in front of a live audience. His understated stage presence belies the magnitude of his message. The production has been directed by Thomas Ostermeier, whose auteur-like works have ravished me in the past (I don’t think I’ve seen a more vicious Richard III than his). Here, he steps back to give Louis a minimalist video-heavy staging that’s both moody and haunting.

RECOMMENDED

WHO KILLED MY FATHER
Off-Broadway, Play
St. Ann’s Warehouse / Schaubühne and Théâtre de la Ville
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through June 5