The Village of the German, the play adapted from Boualem Sansal for Versailles's Molière Month.

The weight of the past can sometimes upend an entire life... Le Village de l’Allemand ou le Journal des frères Schiller, the first theatrical adaptation of Boualem Sansal’s novel, is being staged in the Cour de la Grande Écurie in Versailles, as part of the Mois Molière, on Monday, June 1, 2026 at 8:30 p.m. A family story becomes the starting point for a meditation on memory, silence, and the moral inheritance left by previous generations. The play is brought to the stage by the company Les Asphodèles du Colibri, from an original idea by Thierry Auzer, with an adaptation by Luca Franceschi.

The plot follows Rachel and Malrich, two brothers whose paths diverged, as they confront a startling truth about their father: a Nazi past. Faced with the discovery, each reacts in his own way. The first crumbles under the weight of this truth, while the second tries to understand what this history means for him and for the generations that come after. The play thus revisits one of the great questions of fiction: are we responsible for our parents’ sins?

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Beyond this family question, Le Village de l’Allemand tackles how a word can be recovered after having been held back for a long time. The show portrays the difficulty of facing the past, but also the necessity of naming it in order to rebuild oneself differently. The cast features Alexandra Nicolaidis, Valerian Moutawe, Yann Ducruet, Nicolas Moisy, Samuel Camus and Lysiane Clément.

Presented as part of a festival that, in 2026, marks its 30th anniversary in Versailles, the show sits within a diverse theater program. For audiences drawn to literary adaptations and narratives rooted in historical memory, this performance offers a staging of a contemporary text shaped by questions of transmission, guilt, and truth. Shall we reserve seats?

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