Mairie

Emma of Normandy, the eponymous figure of the work, lived during a particularly violent era for women. Married twice, she reigned alongside her successive husbands and then her sons, who in turn became kings. She was a companion, a mother, a protector, but also a victim of these four men. She embodied power and weakness, domination and subjugation. Despite the incredible longevity of her reign and her political, diplomatic, and military achievements, the woman who brought the House of Normandy into the Kingdom of England was nevertheless erasedby history, like so many other female figures. This play focuses on Emma and her contemporaries, but without seeking to elevate them to major figures in a national narrative. Rather, the aim is to reveal their humanity: the characters who populate this narrative are not admirable heroes. They are fragile and imperfect, and it is precisely their weaknesses and flaws that capture our attention. Their incessant quarrels, their shameful crimes, their imperialist ambitions, their attachment to hierarchies, and their pathological intolerance are integral to the declinedecadence and the failure of excessive and tragic rulers.

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