Written by Nobel Prize–winning author Albert Camus, staged by leading avant-garde French director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota and produced by the celebrated Paris theatre company Théâtre de la Ville, The State of Siege is set to take the country by storm this fall on its first visit to the United States. The rarely staged work, penned in 1948, weaves a tale of paranoia, endurance and political struggle resulting in a dizzying modern metaphor. With a renowned ensemble working on an epic scale, The State of Siege (L’État de siège) explores how art can serve as a way to process – and to resist – human atrocities. What role can art play in the face of peril? Faced with imminent danger, can the human spirit remain focused on the beauty of life?

"My stated purpose was to make our murmuring stages resound with the loud cries that have the power to subdue or to free multitudes of men."
- Albert Camus