LA RESTITUTION DES BIENS CULTURELS AFRICAINS DANS LA PIECE INCINERES DE JEROME TOSSAVI ET D ALOUGBINE DINE

A veteran of the Beninese and African theatre scene for more than half a century, Alougbine Dine signed his umpteenth production in 2022 by adapting Incineres, a play written by Jerome Tossavi, for the stage. A drama about the return of cultural artifacts looted from the former Dahomey, now the Republic of Benin, by the French colonizers, this play highlights the extent of the liberties the director takes with the theatrical text. These deviations are striking, both in the actors' performances and in the treatment of dramatic spaces. How, through the various theatrical categories (story, space, scenography, acting, etc.), does Alougbine Dine convey not so much the passive return, but rather the revolt of cultural artifacts in France and their deliberate arrival in the land of their ancestors ? The answer to this question undoubtedly lies in elevating cultural objects to the status of actors and systematically symbolizing scenographic elements. The aim of this study is to examine, through dramaturgical analysis and theatrical semiotics, the extent of the discrepancies between the playwrights vision of staging and the production actually staged by Alougbine Dine.