Holding a Mirror Up to Theatre: Milo Rau's La Reprise: Histoire(s) du théâtre (I)

Swiss director Milo Rau holds a mirror up to theatre to call into question its assumptions, conventions, and relationship to daily life. Rau's nonfictional story of the murder of Ihsane Jarfi takes place within two overarching narratives with different timeframes—what happens on the stage now, and what happened beyond the stage then. His dramaturgy cautions against both suspension of disbelief and catharsis, and against confusing the fictional with the real.