The Big Sleep

Marion Siéfert is a writer, director, and performer. Her work lies at the intersection of several artistic disciplines and takes shape through various mediums: theatre, film, and writing. In 2015-2016, as part of her doctoral research, she was invited to the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen, Germany. There, she developed her first piece, 2 or 3 Things I Know About You, a portrait of the audience through their Facebook profiles.  

She collaborated on Nocturnes and L’Époque, two films by director Matthieu Bareyre, who also works as artistic collaborator on her stage productions. Together, they now co-write her shows as well as a forthcoming feature film.  

From 2017 to 2023, she was an associate artist at La Commune, Centre Dramatique National in Aubervilliers. In 2018, she created The Big Sleep (Le Grand Sommeil), in collaboration with choreographer and performer Helena de Laurens, presented at the 2018 edition of the Festival d’Automne in Paris. In March 2019, she premiered Current Piece No. 12: DU SALE!, a duet for rapper Original Laeti and dancer Janice Bieleu. This production was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the Fast Forward European Festival.  

Her next piece, _jeanne_dark_, premiered at the 2020 Festival d’Automne in Paris. It was the first show conceived simultaneously for the stage and for Instagram, and received the Digital Prize from the French Critics’ Syndicate for Theatre, Music and Dance, with a special mention.  

Her most recent piece, Daddy, co-written with Matthieu Bareyre, premiered at the CNDC in Angers and at the Odéon–Théâtre de l’Europe. Since 2024, she has been an associate artist at T2G – Centre Dramatique National de Gennevilliers and Points Communs – Scène Nationale de Cergy-Pontoise. 

Helena de Laurens is an artist, actress and dancer. She was born in 1988 and lives in Paris. Her work explores the grotesque, the grimace and metamorphosis. She wrote a thesis on Valeska Gert as part of her studies at EHESS. She has performed in nightclubs, museums, gardens and bookshops. She regularly collaborates with Esmé Planchon, Clara Pacotte and Sophie Bonnet-Pourpet. As a performer and choreographer, she has performed in two solos written and directed by Marion Siéfert: Le Grand Sommeil in 2018 and _jeanne_dark_ in 2020. In 2022 she starred alongside Emmanuelle Lafon and Frédéric Leidgens in Copi’s L’Homosexuel ou la difficulté de s’exprimer, directed by Thibaud Croisy.