Every evening at sunset, Bernard and Viviane gaze across their boundless estate maintained by Jérémie, the ex-convict gardener. Their daughter Léna returns after running away yet again, but the couple acts as if everything is normal. The scene replays in variations, shifting with the uncertainties of the night. Trapped in a loop of bourgeois malaise, Léna and Jérémie can only picture one escape: to murder Bernard and Viviane and burn everything to the ground. Against the Night is a fractured, fevered descent into familial collapse and the erosion of identity. Evelyne de la Chenelière's haunting tragicomedy conjures an absurdist dreamscape where language fabricates reality and everything is up for reinvention. Darkly funny and endlessly fascinating, Against the Night dares us to look into the darkness to see ourselves more clearly. • Le traitement de la nuit was first produced by Théâtre ESPACE GO and Ubu compagnie de création at Théâtre ESPACE GO, Montreal, from March 7 to April 2, 2023. Every evening Bernard and Viviane gaze across their vast estate, maintained by the ex-convict gardener Jérémie, as their runaway daughter Léna returns home once again. Beneath the bourgeois malaise lies a latent violence waiting for release. To free themselves, Léna and Jérémie must sacrifice everything-their estate, heritage, and Bernard and Viviane. Against the Night is a surreal, tragicomic descent into familial collapse, where identity unravels and reality bends. Evelyne de la Chenelière's haunting play invites us into a dreamscape where nothing is certain and everything is up for reinvention. A reality-bending tragicomedy about a family on the verge of collapse.
