Theatre

LACRIMA

Name: LACRIMA
Start: 2026-01-09T20:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-01-09T21:00:00+00:00
Location: Centro Cultural de Belém

Caroline Guiela Nguyen

Dates / Schedules

Main Auditorium

2h55 without intermission

Ages

Prices

This event has already taken place

Dates / Schedules

Friday, January 9th 2026 8:00pm

Saturday, January 10th 2026 7:00pm

Performance in French, with scenes in Tamil, English, and French Sign Language Tickets at €5.00 for students from art schools (subject to limited allocation). Available at the CCB ticket office only.

Theatre

“…lots of invisible work, much of it underpaid and done in poor conditions, goes into a fashion statement.”
The New York Times

“Admirablement construit, mis en scène, scénographié et interprété, Lacrima vous happe dès les premières secondes et ne vous lâche plus durant les trois heures.”
Le Figaro

“This is a monumental, magnetic production.”
The Guardian

«Caroline Guiela Nguyen préfère les gens de l’ombre, le petit peuple des invisibles qui, grâce à elle, accèdent, au théâtre, à des existences dignes de ce nom.»
Le Monde

London, 2025, the Princess of England announces her engagement. Our story begins when representatives of her Highness contact a venerable French fashion house located at number 8, rue du marché Saint-Honoré in Paris, to place an order for a wedding gown.

The show will follow the making of the royal commission, as it passes from expert hand to expert hand. Over 8 months, and the equivalent of 9 057 work hours, we will see the creative acts that bring into being a dress already destined to go down in history. A rare privilege, as the whole process is bound by the strictest codes of confidentiality. If the world of high fashion is habitually secretive, the nature of the commission has put everyone on red alert.

From a Parisian house of haute couture, we venture to an embroidery workshop in Mumbai and a traditional lace -making workshop in Alençon, France.

Three worlds, linked by their work, high level of expertise and secrecy.

Three workshops where violence will erupt among the threads of cotton and flax.

Three workshops where the bodies of men and women have been ruined not only by labour, but also by past wrongs of which they are the unwitting, even unknowing,

custodians.

Without ever losing sight of the expertise these craftsmen and women wield, or the power and knowledge they have in their hands, the question the show will ask, over and over, is if there is a space, in the silence the secret imposes, between what destroys us and what preserves us?

The Centro Cultural de Belém Foundation reserves the right to collect, store and use recordings of image, sound and voice, for the purposes of dissemination and for preserving the memory of its cultural and artistic activities, as well as its spaces. Should you require any further information, please contact us at the following email address: privacidade@ccb.pt

LACRIMA_Caroline Guiela Nguyen_©Jean Louis Fernandez

Ages

+14

Data sheet

Written and directed by Caroline Guiela Nguyen

LSF, English, and Tamil translations by Nadia Bourgeois, Carl Holland, Rajarajeswari Parisot

With Dan Artus alternating with Eric Caruso, Dinah Bellity, Natasha Cashman, Charles Vinoth Irudhayaraj, Anaele Jan Kerguistel, Maud Le Grevellec, Liliane Lipau alternating with Michèle Goddet, Nanii, Rajarajeswari Parisot, Vasanth Selvam

And on video Nadia Bourgeois, Charles Schera, Fleur Sulmont

And the voices of Louise Marcia Blévins, Béatrice Dedieu, David Geselson, Jessica Savage-Hanford, Maya S Krishnan

Artistic collaboration Paola Secret

Set design Alice Duchange

Costumes and couture pieces Benjamin Moreau

Lighting Mathilde Chamoux, Jérémie Papin

Sound Antoine Richard in collaboration with Thibaut Farineau

Original music Jean-Baptiste Cognet, Teddy Gauliat-Pitois, Antoine Richard

Video Jérémie Scheidler

Motion Design Marina Masquelier

Hair, wigs, and makeup Émilie Vuez

Casting Lola Diane

Stage management Stéphane Descombes, Xavier Lazarini

Dramaturgy interns Louison Ryser, Tristan Schinz (students from the TnS School, Group 48)

Directing intern Iris Baldoureaux-Fredon

Sound intern Ella Bellone

Dramaturgy assistant Hugo Soubise

Artistic consultation Juliette Alexandre, Noémie de Lapparent

Recorded music Quatuor Adastra – string quartet

Subtitles Panthéa

The set, costumes, and embroidery were created by the workshops of the TnS.

Premiere May 30^th, 2024, at Wiener Festwochen | Freie Republik Wien

LACRIMA by Caroline Guiela Nguyen is published by Actes Sud.

Production Théâtre National de Strasbourg

Co-production Festival TransAmériques (Canada); La Comédie – National Drama Centre of Reims; Points communs – New National Stage of Cergy-Pontoise; Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; Centro Dramático Nacional de Madrid (Spain); Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d’Europa (Italy); Wiener Festwochen | Freie Republik Wien (Austria); Théâtre National de Bretagne, National Drama Centre; Festival d’Avignon; Les Hommes Approximatifs

With the support of the Institut Français as part of the IF Export 2025 program

With the collaboration of the Odéon – Théâtre de l’Europe, Théâtre Ouvert – National Centre for Contemporary Playwriting (CNDC), Maison Jacques Copeau, Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle d’Alençon, Atelier–Conservatoire National du Point d’Alençon, Institut Français de New Delhi, and the Alliance Française of Mumbai.

Prices and Discounts

Note: With reserved seating and no interval

Plant

Discounts

DISCOUNTS are only valid for CCB production and/or co-production shows and for tickets with a price above €12, with the exception of CCB cardholders, the discount is applied to values above €8.

50 % people with specific needs and accompanying person
50% for Arts and culture professionals
50% for unemployed

30% for CCB Card’s holders (individual, Senior, Youth and Family)
20% for people over 65 / for under 30s / students / for groups of more than 20 people

Tickets at €5.00 for students from art schools (subject to limited allocation). Available at the CCB ticket office only.

Partners

Support

We also suggest

Theatre

...

16th and 17th, 23rd and 25th January 2026

TITUS

Estrutura

Small Auditorium

Past Event

Theatre

...

March 12th at 8:00pm - Extra Date

An Enemy of the People

Marco Martins

Main Auditorium

Buy ticket

Theatre

...

19 to 22, 26 to 29 March

Valentina and Valeria Are Not Dead

Flávia Gusmão and Jacinto Lucas Pires

Black Box

Buy ticket

See all Events

What are you looking for?

Access to myCCB

Don't have an account yet?

LACRIMA

Caroline Guiela Nguyen

Dates / Schedules