Next Performing Arts | Theater

Mohamed El Khatib

La vie secrète des vieux 
(The Secret Life of Old People)

US Premiere

A group of older people stand together with the back of their hands against their foreheads.

Experience a performance featuring real humans telling real stories that explore whether the end of life marks the end of love.

On the dance floor of a ballroom, eight elderly men and women talk openly about love and sexuality, each recounting their story and experiences. Facing the aging process means confronting society’s gaze and observing one’s own worn-out body as it erodes one’s autonomy day by day. And yet, very often, love endures. And even more so, desire. It no longer conforms to notions of performance or social pressure; instead, it develops its own rhythm, its own timing, and its own fragile—yet equally intense—intimacy.

Through these encounters with our elders, the central question explored here is: How is love lived out in later life?

To conduct this documentary project, playwright Mohamed El Khatib gathered the testimonies of elderly people from all social backgrounds, weaving together a narrative that bears witness to a plurality of romantic experiences. This landscape of the third age serves as a nostalgic tableau reflecting on our own intimate histories, yet it also holds the promise that desire can find a home within the very fragility of our lives, right up until the very last moments. Presented in French with English subtitles. (program approx. 70 mins. no intermission)

IMAGE CAPTION
La vie secrète des vieux, © Yohanne Lamoulère / Tendance Floue.

"Joyful, tender, sad, riotous and eye-watering in its kaleidoscopic portrait of pleasure from first fumblings to happy endings."
The Guardian

About the playwright

Mohamed El Khatib

As an author, stage director, filmmaker, and visual artist, Mohamed El Khatib develops projects situated at the crossroads of performance, literature, and cinema. Through intimate and social epics, he creates manifold opportunities for encounters between art and those who are typically distanced from it. Alongside his projects for the stage, El Khatib has pursued a practice in the visual arts, often in collaboration with other artists. In the Savoie region of France, working alongside Valérie Mréjen, he spearheaded the creation of the first art center located within a nursing home. At the Collection Lambert in Avignon, he conceived a “sentimental exhibition” by bringing together curators from the Abbé Pierre Foundation—individuals facing precarious living conditions—and members of the museum’s own staff.

Program Support

Supported by Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation through the Theatre & New Forms program.

PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Doris Duke Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Greater Columbus Arts Council

Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts

CampusParc

The Columbus Foundation

The Ohio State University

Wexner Center Foundation Board

With special thanks to our members

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Mohamed El Khatib