Le Voyage de la Vénus Noire - Alice Diop - Vienna Festival 2026

Sable Venus – have we seen these two words together before? French film director Alice Diop’s very first feature film, Saint Omer, was already rewarded with the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. She now presents her first work for theatre, which is based on a revolutionary text. It is an essay by American poet Robin Coste Lewis that turns the entire Western history of art upside down, reading it from the utterly new perspective of the black female figure. Inspired by Lewis’ approach, Diop takes the audience on a fascinating journey. In a radically simple theatrical set up that comprises only a table, her own body and the text, what emerges is a pictorial stream that goes beyond all imagination. It is a mind-changing theatre experience, or as the text says: „The Voyage of the Sable Venus is an epic written in one line.“

Recommended for ages 14+

Language: French with German and English surtitles
Duration: 70 Min.

programme

Le Voyage de la Vénus Noire

Die Reise der Schwarzen Venus

Alice Diop

Text von Robin Coste Lewis