Mathilde Aurier stages play about Marseille’s Rue d’Aubagne collapse

Playwright and director Mathilde Aurier has written and staged 65 Rue d’Aubagne at Théatre de la Criée in Marseille. The play responds to the collapse of two dilapidated houses on 5 November 2018 on the Rue d’Aubagne, an event that has been referred to as France’s Grenfell moment and in which eight people were killed, prompting a national outcry and large protests.

Anchored in the experiences of Nina, a fictional resident who was not there on the night of the collapse, the piece moves through Marseille voices to cover the shell‑shocked aftermath, the evacuations of more than 4,000 people from similarly rundown lodgings, struggles with rigid bureaucracy and a halcyon Mediterranean existence that was shattered.

Aurier says she met the woman who inspired Nina in 2022, then spent eight months researching; she describes her method as "documented" rather than strictly documentary and mixes lyrical reveries with surreal touches, including an inflatable crocodile representing the long‑incumbent mayor.

The play is heavily fragmented and divided into five sections named for a wave’s breaking phases, a dramaturgy Aurier says mirrors the sense there was a before, during and after to the drama. She also cites the influence of the British playwright Howard Barker and describes catastrophe as a recurring concern in her work.

Key Topics

Culture, Mathilde Aurier, Rue D'aubagne, Marseille, Howard Barker