THAT’S THE WAY THE COOKIE CRUMBLES
Émilie Franco
PRODUCTION TDL
Show premiered on 13 October 2026 at the Théâtre de Liège
A voice sings. A screen lights up, cities overlap: Agrigento, Liège, perhaps New York. Between these places, a question stirs: what if several versions of our lives existed simultaneously?
When Émilie, a ‘shifter’ from Liège, travels to Sicily for the first time to meet the family of her centenarian nonna Marianna, their resemblance baffles everyone. Marianna left her island in 1954 to move to Belgium. Yet one of her brothers claims that, in reality, she crossed the Atlantic to New York.
Intrigued by this possible parallel life and convinced of the existence of the multiverse, Émilie begins her research. In the Ellis Island records, listing arrivals in the United States, she discovers her grandmother’s name—on the very date her grandmother arrived in Liège. Émilie then decides to set off for New York in pursuit of this double. In this city with its voracious energy, her bearings falter, reality cracks and reveals another figure: Joan, her own alter ego.
Émilie Franco creates a performance at the crossroads of theatre, video and live music. Drawing on archives and field research, this autofictional narrative weaves a link between personal memory and contemporary imaginaries through reality shifting, the practice of ‘quantum travel’ popularised on TikTok mainly by young women, the ‘shifters’.
She thus opens a gateway to a “desired reality”, where personal fictions multiply the possibilities, and questions our desire to escape reality in order to imagine others.
Calendar
Tarifs
- Plein tarif 15 €
- 65ans+/Carte prof/Groupe10+ 15 €
- -30ans/Pro/Dem.d'emploi 9 €
- Groupe scolaire 8 €
- -15ans 7 €
- Etudiants Conservatoires Art de la parole 5 €
Distributions
Concept, writing, performance: Émilie Franco
Music composition, live music: Aurélie Mestres (Louise Roam)
Set design, performance: Gaëtan Rusquet
Sound design, stage management, sound engineer: Raphaël Barani
Lighting design: Florian Leduc
Dramaturgical collaboration: Lucille Calmel (stage), Arnaud Timmermans (text) Acting direction: Salvatore Calcagno
Choreographic supervision: Baptiste Conte
Vocal coaching: Muriel Legrand
Costumes: Clothilde Arzoumanian-Charron
Make-up: Sarah Roman
Technical collaboration: Maxence Obein
Video production (in progress)
Directing intern Isée Rocaboy
Administration/production Mathilde Brasseur (Bloody Sunset asbl)
Production/distribution coordination: Tristan Barani (Bloody Sunset asbl)
Set construction: Ateliers du Théâtre de Liège
Production Théâtre de Liège, DC&J Création
Co-produced by Bloody Sunset asbl, La Pop (Paris), Atelier 210 and Le Rideau (Brussels), Mars – Mons arts de la scène, Lieu Multiple and META CDN de Poitiers Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Airfono, ERT Fondazione (Modena)
Supported by Le CORRIDOR, La Maison Poème, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, the Centre Wallonie Bruxelles, 3 bis f – Centre d’arts contemporains Aix-en-Provence, La Chartreuse – Centre national des écritures du spectacle, (e)utopia – Armel Roussel, Paris City Hall – Musical Creation, the Belgian Federal Government’s Tax Shelter, and Inver Tax Shelter
Support from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation / Theatre Department and SACD Beaumarchais
This project benefited from an artist residency supported by the PROSPERO NEW platform, co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme.
