“160,000 children”, the words of victims of sexual abuse delivered by three actresses

Pedophilia targets girls as well as boys, between 8 and 14 years old, and has long been avoided, except for a few cases that have made headlines. Their words are in the Off d’Avignon.

Adapted from 160,000 children. Sexual violence and social denial (Gallimard) by Édouard Durand, performed by three actresses, the testimonies of outrage against children are exposed to the public. Frontally, Nacima Bekhtaoui, Cécile Morel and Isis Van Groeningen throw the cat among the pigeons.

The cause is not so frequently mentioned. The theater is taking it up and the Avignon Off Festival is highlighting it until July 21 at the Théâtre des Lila’s.

Judge and expert, specialist in marital conflicts, Édouard Durand has looked into incestuous excesses, with the publication in 2022 of Defend children (Seuil). The play adapts his second work published in 2024 on the subject. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters confide the “tendernesses” and gestures hidden, suffered, buried deep inside themselves, with a trauma at the end.

A shock for life. Consciously or not, the discovery of sex in a child by an adult can only have tragic consequences on the rest of his life. Rape, touching, harassment, the “techniques” are the same with children as with adults. The age of sexual maturity is set in France at 15 years. Ten years is the average age of child victims.

Choosing a tripartite approach, the actresses play the witnesses who relate an experience, a pain, a breakup. The text is clear without being punctuated and the sobriety does not minimize the facts. What do we hear? Homes, gestures, kind words, then oppressive, like these hands that search in secret, unknown, taboo places. “Unprepared” cops conclude without following up on testimonies that embarrass or surprise them. According to the Ciivise report, 160,000 children are victims of sexual assault each year. In France, 6.7 million people report having been victims of incest, with girls being the majority at 78%. Sad and cold mathematics that suggest the scale of the disaster.

In early July, an investigation by journalists from Mediapart has identified 77 cases revealing dysfunctions in French sport, counting 276 victims in 28 different sports, the vast majority of victims being aged 15 years or less at the time of the events. Let it no longer be like this.

“160,000 children”
According to Édouard Durand
From July 2 to 21, 1 hour, closed on July 8 and 15
Lila’s Theater
8 rue Londe, 84000 Avignon
04 90 33 89 89