Neandertal

« David Geselson crafts a narrative that progresses quietly, but whose magnitude needs no clamor to assert its omnipotence. He prefers the whisper of intimacy to the spectacularity of reality (…) Moving forward in hushed, strategic steps, [he] creates a fascinating show. While its dramaturgy is limpid, its resonances are dizzyingly complex. They ricochet off a multitude of themes: paternity and filiation, memory and oblivion, bonding and emancipation, rationality and belief. (…) David Geselson excels at allusion without getting sidetracked into equivocation. It’s a talent that’s not ordinary. »
Joëlle Gayot, Le Monde

« Seeking the common genomes between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals… A quest that is both scientific and philosophical, skillfully directed by David Geselson, where grand history and intimate wounds intertwine. On stage, there is earth, rock, millennia-old bones… and Mahlerian musical accents that stir the soul. The artist here asserts their theatrical exploration and confirms their talent for narrating grand history (in this case, the very, very grand) through the most intimate wounds. »
Emmanuelle Bouchez, Télérama

« The play twirls through scientific challenges without losing us. Virtuosic. (…) David Geselson has a particular talent for shifting from one topic to another without ever making the absurdity of the situations or the connection of his ideas seem gratuitous. He probably achieves this because each of the actors – all excellent – immerses us in the present, in shared feelings and obsessions. (…) The dialogues never assert any truths and do not treat the characters as mouthpieces. It is through their vulnerability and despite the impossibilities that Rosa, Lüdo, Lukas, and their counterparts reveal themselves and share their doubts, at the very heart of their megalomaniacal and obstacle-strewn research, which a simple sneeze can bring to naught. »
Anne Diatkine, Libération

« With the gentleness and subtlety that characterize his theater, David Geselson enchants us, and science becomes poetry. »
Thierry Fiorile, France Info

« Neandertal investigates the doubts of identity and love. (…) Silence and secrets begin to speak, to our great pleasure and joy as spectators. This is great, beautiful theater. »
Amélie Blaunstein-Niddam, Toute la culture.com

« David Geselson knows how to weave a captivating story around memory, love, science, history, and how some attempt to use science to reinvent history. A masterfully staged narrative that employs various forms of audience engagement, plot twists, and scenic innovations (…) Carried by six fantastic actors (…), the performance also masterfully utilizes the talents of cellist Jérémie Arcache and illustrator Marine Dillard, ceaselessly creating ephemeral shapes from sand.. »
Jean-Marie Wynants, Le Soir

« David Geselson delivers a searing choral score that takes us from Jerusalem to Serbia via the Ukraine. Neandertal, through its characters inhabited by their fears and ideals, clashes with the eminently political issues at stake in the quest for origins. (…) A vibrant polycephalic narrative, carried by the low notes of the cello, Neandertal weaves the fabric of a history of dominations imprinted on the skin of each and every one of us. David Geselson dusts off history and delineates the contours of our cousin’s disappearance, intimately echoing that which is hanging over our heads. »
Julia Vidal, Les Inrockuptibles

« An inventive, plural, playful theater that passionately questions and connects us in a common narrative (…) The play creates a remarkably orchestrated theatrical score where the adventure of scientific research intertwines with the bumps of intimacy, but also with the dramas of History. (…) What’s striking is the concrete, meaningful way in which the staging is embedded in relationships, in bodies themselves, creating a playful yet deeply moving theater, without any easy or sentimental effects, proceeding by ricochets and brushstrokes. (…) The play is a passionate and talented invitation to focus on what brings people together rather than what divides them. (…) Irrigated by a joyful vitality despite the misfortunes and threats, the show is a great sucess. »
Agnès Santi, La Terrasse