Twenty reflections on love and human connection, tracing the endless cycle of encounter and separation.

© Agathe Pommerat

Created in 2013, La Réunification des deux Corées is one of the signature works of French theater master Joël Pommerat. Despite its title, the play is not concerned with geopolitics; rather, the image of two nations that are at once inseparable and irreconcilably split becomes a metaphor for the paradoxes of human relationships. Nine actors perform twenty self-contained scenes, each a fragment of love that remains quietly threaded to the others. With language that is measured and sharply distilled, and a tone that moves between realism and dark humor, Pommerat sketches the shifting states of intimacy: from fascination to indifference, from misunderstanding to resentment, and from passion to separation. Through this mosaic of relationships, the play dismantles the myths of love and exposes its truth.

© Agathe Pommerat

One of the scenes, “Divorce,” is adapted from Scenes from a Marriage by Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, offering a delicate portrayal of the rawness and helplessness found in the cracks of a relationship.

Joël Pommerat, who describes himself as an author-director, values collective creation above all. He sees the actors’ performance as the foundation of the script, and during rehearsal continuously develops the text of the story. In 1990, he founded the company Compagnie Louis Brouillard. His “fairy-tale trilogy” — Pinocchio, Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, and Cendrillon — offers contemporary reinterpretations of well-known classic stories, while Contes et légendes, turns its gaze toward the shifting value systems of the AI era. Together, these four works have been performed in Taichung, each opening a different way of revisiting the narratives we inherit. In the 2024 revival of La Réunification des deux Corées, the original double-faced stage emphasizing opposition was transformed into a minimal proscenium stage, with redesigned sound, lighting, hair and makeup, creating for a new generation a fresh perspective on love and human connection.

© Agathe Pommerat

© Agathe Pommerat

Compagnie Louis Brouillard
In 1990, Pommerat founded Compagnie Louis Brouillard. The name “Brouillard” (fog), paired with “Louis,” whose sound evokes the French verb luire (to give off light), clearly reflects Pommerat’s theatrical approach: one that moves between revelation and concealment, between brightness and shadow. His productions intentionally pursue darkness, with a precise and almost obsessive use of lighting aimed at achieving a state that is “quite dark, but never pitch-black.” Pommerat believes that when the audience cannot fully see the actors, they are able to focus more deeply on the work itself, and in it, catch sight of their own reflection.

Since 2006, the company has received numerous major theater awards in France, including two consecutive Molière Awards for Best Company, the highest honor in French theater, for Cercles / Fictions (2010) and Ma chambre froide (2011).