After the story by Marguerite Duras
Translated by Barbara Bray
Adapted by Laurence Strangio
in collaboration with Caroline Lee
Direction Laurence Strangio
Performed by Caroline Lee
Set and Costume Design Anna Tregloan
Lighting Design Richard Vabre
Sound Design David Franzke

Following the runaway success of Caroline Lee and Laurence Strangio’s
adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, Malthouse Theatre is
delighted to reprise their production of La Douleur, Marguerite Duras’
mesmerising portrait of wartime France after the reprieve.

The torment which informs the novel, La Douleur, was the capture and
imprisonment of Duras’ husband by the Gestapo. Against all odds, he survived
periods in Buchenwald, Gandersheim and Dachau. The nameless woman at the
centre of this heart-shattering elegy - played with uncanny immediacy and
emotional intelligence by Lee - is confined to a purgatory of anticipation.

As she waits for news of her husband’s death in the trenches, she grows
even more terrified of the hope that he might yet live. She is defined by this
waiting, paralysed by the threat of hope.

With a climax that is both shocking and life-affirming, La Douleur is a testament
to a love that goes beyond passion to encompass the very soul of fraternite.

"La Douleur is another outstanding collaborative dramatisation
from Strangio and Lee." The Age