Massini, women and workers

At the Théâtre de L’épée de bois, at the Cartoucherie (75), Olivier Mellor present 7 minutes (factory committee). A play by Stefano Massini, performed by the Shepherd’s Company. Upon returning from negotiations with the buyers of their company, eleven workers debate their future. An original and impactful work that brings the world of work to the forefront.

Tension extrême sur la scène du Jacques Tati Cultural Center from Amiens (80) where the piece was created in January 2026, there is an uproar within the textile company Picard & Roche! Gathered in the factory committee room, very impatient and worried about the hours of waiting that pass by, ten women scrutinize the return of Blanche, their delegaterepresentative of employees on the board of directors which drags on for a long time.

What are the managers of the multinational that has just bought their factory planning: the closure or relocation of part of production, a wave of layoffs, a drop in wages? As soon as she arrives, through the door, Blanche lays down the cards. She carries a cleaver letter on which the members of the factory committee must decide. The new shareholders, “the ties” as they call them, set their conditions for the takeover of the clothing factory. The leaders’ offer is final: no reduction in workforce or reduction in salary if the two hundred workers give up 7 minutes of their daily break out of the 15 from which they still benefit. Should they accept this offer, this supposed “gift” or not? The eleven elected officials have little time to vote, and decide, on behalf of all the staff!

The debate begins, harsh, bitter, long between those who are in favor of the measure, “to save the company”, and Blanche, the only one who is opposed to it: 100 minutes of confrontation for 7 minutes à brader ou à ne point lâcher. 100 thrilling, stressful minutes where contradictory opinions clash, in good or bad faith, between personal attacks and thoughts about the future. 100 minutes especially where the world of work makes a notable entry onto the stage.

À the Mousson d’été 2018, in the majestic setting of the Prémontrés Abbey in Pont-à-Mousson, the director Michel Didym had already proposed a reading of the play by Stefano Massini, before creating a lyrical version at the Nancy-Lorraine opera house. Captivating, and a piece that remained so under the leadership of Maëlle Poésy in 2021 at the Comedie Françaiseon the stage of the Vieux Colombier… For now, Olivier Mellor’s direction, enhanced by an excellent trio of musicians, seems to accentuate the confinement in which the protagonists are immersed.it gives the full measure of the social drama that is playing out before our eyes. As in the ancient tragedy, strong and powerful words resonate under the arches of the theater: respect, truth, dignity.

Aside from the glossy paper of women’s magazines, it’s a team of ordinary women who occupy the boards of L’épée de bois à the Cartoucherie, employees ignored and overexploited as so many use and abuse in the business worldmultinational or not. Women confronted with a difficult life, often with low pay and precarious status, sometimes in their condition of foreigner… Here, ideology has deserted the top of the block, here it is humanity which becomes flesh.

No Manichaeism in the words of Massinipoint of excess in Mellor’s staging, Picard & Roche employees express themselves and move with everyday words and gestures, their aspirations perhaps down to earth but how beneficial : the pressing need for a salary, even in poverty, the precious desire for social recognition with even a precarious job. Accept the reduction in break time? An obvious fact, unstoppable for one traumatized by her previous dismissal, unavoidable for the other immigrant who is regaining a taste for life, an identical opinion for the veteran of the workshop as for the little young person recently hired… Magistral Karine Dedeurwaerder, Blanche alone affirms it, persists and signs : no, that’s no!

Few playwrights take up the theme of work as an object of writing: Michel Vinaver, Alexandra Badea, Rémi de Vos for the most recognized and performed… The Italian author Stefano Massini was inspired by the conflict that shook in 2012 the Lejaby lingerie company located in Yssengeaux in Haute Loire. A work superbly constructed on the framework of Twelve angry menthe famous film by Sidney Lumet… Will Blanche manage to convince her ten colleagues to refuse this fool’s bargain? “The factory is profitable, the accounts are flourishing. 7 minutes of break cut to each employee means, at the end of the month, 600 hours of work offered to shareholders.” And the delegate concluded, “Our decision will be symbolic for other companies.”

Blanche’s remarks do not fall within the realm of militant discourse. Just a burst of resistance, a poignant cry of dignity, an incredible leap into the unknown to move from an individual destiny to a collective adventure… It’s both a little and a lot, a possible path of struggle! “It’s a piece about limits, renunciations, the tension that we have to go through to stay united.”comments Olivier Mellor, “little represented on stage, the female workers’ struggles are played out here without a heroine or leader but through a collective, fragile and strong voice.” And the director of the Shepherd’s Company to continue: “the closed space becomes that of the test: we must listen to each other, argue, convince, take a step towards the other”.

One hundred minutes of head-on, heated but captivating confrontation between the employees of the Picard & Roche company, for seven minutes of break to sell or not to give up. Time is running out, it’s time to vote… Breathtaking, moving, the astonishing female closed session ignites our imagination, a choral piece to magnify the height of intelligence born from collective reflection! Yonnel Liégeois, photos Alexandre Tourte

7 minutes (factory committee) by Stefano Massini, directed by Olivier Mellor: from June 11 to 28, Thursday to Saturday at 9 p.m., Sunday at 4:30 p.m. Théâtre de L’épée de boisCartoucherie, Route du Champ de ManÅ“uvre, 75012 Paris (Tel.: 01.48.08.39.74). The text is available from L’arche publisher (translation Pietro Pizzuti, 96 p., 13€50).