GUIDE ARTS AROUND THE WORLD
FT
May 4 2007 03:00
Paris
ERMEN, TITRE PROVISOIRE
Pascal Tokatlian was raised in France of Italian and Armenian stock,
but started unravelling strands of family history only as a young
adult. His monologue, performed as part of France’s Year of Armenia,
interweaves direct experience with excerpts from the writings of Aram
Andonian, one of the few intellectuals to survive concentration camps
in Syria and Mesopotamia between 1915 and 1919. Andonian provides
gripping testimony – of tents as far as the eye could see, dead bodies
used as pillows by the dying.
Tokatlian grounds his piece in intimacy, piecing together family
anecdotes, while Gaguik Mouradian’s solo kamantcha is played with
moving restraint.
Tokatlian’s recital of the final segment of Andonian’s memoirs is
compelling: "How long do we have to march?" "Until your bodies can’t
take any more."