Pasolini's Pétrole adapted by Sylvain Creuzevault at L'Odéon

With Pétrole, presented at the Théâtre national de l'Odéon from November 25 to December 21, 2025, Sylvain Creuzevault tackles Pier Paolo Pasolini 's final literary project. Unfinished, dense and enigmatic, this text, published posthumously in 1992, stands as a radical synthesis of Pasolini's work. It is not a linear narrative that the director presents, but a vertigo of forms, a polyphony of thoughts, narratives and fragments, in a deliberately dissonant dramaturgy.

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The play follows the divergent trajectories of Carlo Valletti, a figure split into Carlo I and Carlo II. The former rises through the ranks of the oil company ENI, while the latter abandons himself to an unfettered carnal quest. Part political investigation, part social critique and part metaphysical digression, Pétrole explores the tensions of a changing Italy, plagued by violence, power struggles and contradictory impulses.

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With an estimated running time of 3h30, the show is presented as an assemblage in perpetual motion, in the image of what Pasolini called a "discontinuity of forms". On stage, a collective of actors brings this abundant material to life, in a staging that blends political fable, documentary theater and hallucinatory visions.

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This production is aimed at fans of ambitious contemporary theater, curious to explore an unusual literary work through an experimental stage reading. Audiences accustomed to classic narratives may find it disconcerting, but those who appreciate open, engaged forms will find it fertile ground for reflection.

This article is based on publicly available information. It is not based on a viewing of the show.