Bernard Henri Levy’s Monologue Looking for Europe Begins

Following its debut in New York and an acclaimed run, the play comes to Spain with the aim of stirring consciences before a Europe on the edge of the abyss. First stop: Valencia.

Poster for the play Looking for Europe by Bernard Henri Levy

The setting: a hotel room in Sarajevo. The protagonist: a writer charged with composing a speech about Europe, with a deadline of 90 minutes. The conflict: the intellectual’s inability to portray the continent and its history in a positive light. These are the threads with which the writer, essayist and philosopher Bernard Henri Levy weaves his work Looking for Europe, an interior monologue that he currently performs himself on stage. The play, a reflection on the European idea and its critical situation, comes to Spain after a successful run that began on 5 November 2018 (the day Bernard Henri Levy turned 70) on Broadway, New York. On this occasion it is Levy himself who plays the protagonist, one more reason not to miss this intense monologue meant to challenge and awaken consciences. 

A moment from the play during its inaugural performance in New York (2018). At laregledujeu.org

The text confronts the difficult situation that the European continent is currently living through. Burning issues such as the rise of populisms, the dubious alliances between opposing ideologies or the problem of nationalisms shape a desolate panorama. The protagonist of Looking for Europe is aware that the so-called “old continent” today faces a wave of xenophobic and nationalist currents that threaten to destroy everything built after the end of the great wars. Shut in his room and watching the time run out, the spirits of figures such as Goethe, Dante or Vaclav Havel come to his aid. Over the course of the play, the writer surveys the latest European political and cultural events in search of the longed-for way out. All seems lost, but a ray of hope still remains… The play invites us to reflect on the search for solutions through the study of history. From Valencia, the monologue will then visit Barcelona and Madrid before continuing its tour through other European capitals.

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