6 Questions: Catherine Filloux

Catherine Filloux's new play, Kidnap Road, is inspired by the story of Ingrid Betancourt.  As Filloux explains, "Details of Ingrid Betancourt’s story can be found in the public record. This story is imagined as a two-person play based in part on those events."  Catherine took time out from preparing for the show to answer 6 Questions for the La MaMa Blog:

1. What was it about the story of Ingrid Betancourt that made you want to explore it?
My parents are French and French was my first language. I was in France traveling by train to my aunt’s in Montpellier when Ingrid Betancourt was rescued. France had worked consistently for her rescue. I admire women leaders who fight for the poor, for children, and who risk their life in a male-dominated political climate. I was drawn to the parallels that Ingrid Betancourt and her own mother shared; what they decided to do in terms of their families to pursue politics. I am personally intrigued by family legacies. And PTSD is a theme I have often written about; when I first started writing about it, it was not a well known acronym as it is now, and that exploration has been important to me. Also I wanted to explore the spirituality in this story as well as the dramatization of memory.

2. What surprised you the most about Betancourt or her story?
The story of survival, and the story of the backlash against women leaders and their polarizing effect, which repeats itself.

3. What would you like audiences to take away from Kidnap Road?
I hope they will be immersed in this human struggle onstage, and in the spirit of the unexpected (for example, God and Camus) through the power of language, and our artistic team’s collaboration.

4. What was the last play/film/performance that made an impression on you?
I was pleased to take my sister Marianne, who lives in Montana, to see The Mountain Bird at La MaMa recently. Ibsen’s unfinished opera. We were both amazed by the performers’ physicality. I loved the (slow) climbing up the mountain and the descent; it was mesmerizing in a way I had not seen before. Marianne is a skier as are her friends and family, and if anyone could relate to the process of putting on skis it is her! The performers were intrepid in the Norwegian snow! It was a surprising and memorable performance.

5. If you weren't working in theater, what do you think you'd like to do?
A runner.

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?
La MaMa is home.

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La MaMa presents
KIDNAP 
ROAD

Written by Catherine Filloux
Directed by Elena Araoz

April 27, 2017 - May 14, 2017
Thursday - Saturday at 7:30pm; Sunday at 2pm

The First Floor Theatre 
74A East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $20 Adults; $15 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE