"Les Funérailles d'Hiver" Coming to the TEM Stage

A Student Theatre Mini-Production

The drama-option students have been hard at work for over two months now, preparing an ambitious theatre production for the Théâtre Érick Moreau. Rehearsals began the week before the winter break, at the usual rhythm of two hours a week but, as drama teacher Frédéric PATTO puts it, "two hours isn't enough to really immerse yourself in the creative process, you sometimes need entire days." So the cast came in four full weekend days, from 9am to 3pm, to go deeper into the work, just like professionals do. 

Theatre class offers students something that's hard to find elsewhere in a school curriculum. Standing in front of an audience, learning to project your voice, hold a scene, and trust your fellow actors: these are skills that carry well beyond the stage. For students navigating their years at the Lycée, it's also a powerful space to find their footing in the French language: to feel it, play with it, and make it their own. And perhaps most importantly, it's a place where students get to discover a different side of themselves, one that's a little braver, a little more open, and more confident in who they are.

The production reflects that commitment. Students have access to the theatre's full technical setup: lighting, staging, sound and what PATTO describes as "a truly professional visual and audio experience." The result feels less like a school show and more like the real thing.

About the play:

Funérailles d'hiver, written by Hanokh LEVIN, is a pitch-black comedy in the theatre of the absurd tradition. Picture a frantic chase where everyone is running — but no one wants to be caught. A wedding must be saved at all costs. A funeral can no longer be avoided. And the one rule that holds everything together: if the family finds out someone has died, the celebration is off. So the only solution is to keep running from the truth.

With dark humour, absurd situations, and spectacularly selfish characters, the play asks one simple question: how far would you go to avoid hearing bad news?

Running time: approximately 1 hour.

We hope to see you there!

Learn more about Frédéric PATTO, Drama Teacher on the Ortega Campus

See also TLF Program | Other Clubs and Activities