by David Lescot

This season, Massalia programmed a guest show aimed at youth audiences, called Master. The play was written by a famous French writer, David Lescot, for Jean-Pierre Baro, a director, whose productions are now played in the most important theatres in France. The play takes place in a classroom. The pupils don’t know that they are going to attend a performance. In front of the white board stands a teacher, actually a rap teacher, and it’s time for a short oral exam. A young man is chosen by the teacher to answer his questions. Here begins a battle between the teacher and the student about the history of rap music. Through this battle, the author and the director raise questions about the 1980s and post-colonisation in France and how rap music has had a lot to say about it.

During the performance, the young people react, sometimes strongly, to the situations and to the confrontations between the teacher and the student. When the performance is over, a talk takes place between the artists and the audience and a lot of questions, remarks and music titles are discussed.

We presented this show nine times in secondary schools and high schools. It was a great experience for the artists and the audience. It sometimes created new relationships between us, the theatre team, and the young people, most of them belonging to hard-to-reach audiences.

Director Jean-Pierre Baro
Actors Amine Adjina, Rodolphe Blanchet
Music Loïc Leroux