“Like a magician, Pommerat takes us from one sensation to another, from one emotion to another, from one laugh to another.”
Télérama

“He is one of the most complete and singular talents on the European scene. Eleven years after its first version, Joël Pommerat offers a masterful recreation of this mosaic of fragments exploring the myth of love.”
La Terrasse

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).

A theatrical creation by Joël Pommerat 

With: Ella Benoit, Saadia Bentaïeb, Yannick Choirat, Philippe Frécon, Ruth Olaizola, Marie Piemontese, Anne Rotger, David Sighicelli, Maxime Tshibangu

Scenography and light / Éric Soyer
Technical direction / Emmanuel Abate
Assistant technical direction / Thaïs Morel
Video / Renaud Rubiano
Props / Thomas Ramon
Costumes / Isabelle Deffin
Dresser / Claire Lezer
Wigs / Julie Poulain(2024), Estelle Tolstoukine(2012)
Sound / Philippe Perrin(2024), François Leymarie, Grégoire Leymarie(2012)
Original music / Antonin Leymarie

Music recorded by:
Joachim Florent (basse / contrebasse)
Jean-Philippe Feiss (violoncelle)
Guillaume Magne (basse / guitare)
Gérald Chevillon (clarinette basse / sax)
Guillaume Dutrieux (voix dans tuba / trompette)
Matthieu Ha (voix de celui ou celle qui chante)
Jeanne Added et Thomas de Pourquery (autres voix)

Artistic collaboration / Garance Rivoal, Lucia Trotta
Assistant director / Pierre-Yves Le Borgne
Light engineer / Gwendal Malard
Stage engineers / Jean-Pierre Costanziello, Héloïse Fizet
Sound engineer / Yoann Blanchard
Video engineer / Grégoire Chomel
Surtitles engineer / Jorge Tomé
Documents research / Évelyne Pommerat
Sound research / Alain Besson
Assistant costumes / Karelle Durand (2012)
Seamstress / Morgane Olivier (2012)
Set construction / Thomas Ramon–ARTOM (2024) - Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe’s workshops with Compagnie Louis Brouillard engineers and the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe’s technical team (2012)

International development, agent / Anne de Amézaga
Administration / Elsa Blossier
Associate manager / Magali Briday-Voileau
Production manager / Alice Caputo
Tour manager / Pierre-Quentin Derrien
Head of production / Lorraine Ronsin-Quéchon

• Thank you to: Julien Bellver, Gwendal Malard, Cici Olsson, Guillaume Rizzo. Joël Pommerat thanks Monique Pimouguet, Nathalie Dorion, Iman Kerroua, Élodie Subirade, Joséphine Duquesnoy, Maud Gentien, Élise Rochet, Anne-Marie Borée, Solène Dejean, Jérôme Garnier, Julien Desjardins, Frédéric Duten, Loïc Dauphin, Patrick Eisenbeis, Florent Masse et Luc Mouret for their generous contribution to the recreation of sensitive spaces.
• One excerpt from Scenes from a Marriage by Ingmar Bergman as translated by Lucie Albertini Guillevic and Carl Gustav Bjurströ © Éditions Gallimard

• Creation 2013

Created on January 17, 2013 at Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe / Ateliers Berthier.
Production: Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, Compagnie Louis Brouillard
Coproduction: Théâtre National–Bruxelles, Folkteatern–Göteborg, Teatro Stabile di Napoli–Naples, Théâtre français du Centre national des Arts du Canada–Ottawa, Centre National de Création et de Diffusion Culturelles de Châteauvallon, la Filature Scène Nationale Mulhouse, les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, le Parapluie (Centre des arts de Rue–Aurillac) en collaboration avec Teatrul National Radu Stanca–Sibiu.
With support from European Union Cultural Program, as part of the Cities on stage / Villes en scène project.
This project was funded with support from the European Commission.

• Re-creation 2024

From April 24 to July 14, 2024 at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin.
Production: Compagnie Louis Brouillard
Coproduction: Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin; La Coursive-Scène nationale de La Rochelle; Les Célestins, Théâtre de Lyon; L'Estive–Scène nationale de Foix et de l'Ariège; L'Azimut, Pôle national cirque d’Antony et de Châtenay-Malabry; Les Théâtres de Compiègne; Le Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar; La Comète-Scène nationale de Châlons-en-Champagne

Action financed by the Île-de-France Region.

• Compagnie Louis Brouillard receives funding from the Ministère de la Culture / DRAC Île-de-France and the Région Île-de-France.
• Joël Pommerat and Compagnie Louis Brouillard are associated with Nanterre-Amandiers, La Coursive / Scène nationale de La Rochelle, and Théâtre National Populaire de Villeurbanne(TNP).
• Joël Pommerat's texts are published by Actes Sud-Papiers.