The Messengers

August 2021. The Afghan Girls Theater Group, nine actresses and one director, fled their homeland as the Taliban regained power, escaping in haste to Lyon, where their theatrical journey continues to collide with reality in the most powerful of ways. Welcomed and supported by Lyon’s Théâtre Nouvelle Génération and the Théâtre National Populaire in Villeurbanne, under the direction of Jean Bellorini, the group have found a stage for their art – one deeply entwined with their life experience. Drawing on Sophocles’ ancient tragedy, the nine women form a gentle yet defiant chorus. Like Antigone, they stand tall against the cruel arbitrariness of authority. United in spirit yet each carrying her own story, they shift gracefully between lightness, presence and poetic invocation. In a subtle interplay of shadow and light, on the edge of a vast pool under the moon’s glow, their fervour and joy crash against the darkness, shaking the very foundations of tyranny. A vivid testament to theatre as the art of the here and now, this is a living, breathing act of resistance. Performed in Dari with French surtitles, this luminous ode to life gives voice – loud and clear – to today’s heroic messengers, honouring the courage of those who rise for freedom and justice.