(Laura Cappelle’s article appeared in The New York Times, 11/23; via Pam Green.)
PARIS — On Nov. 16, 2015, three days after a terrorist attack that killed 90 at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, an open letter by Antoine Leiris, whose wife Hélène was among the victims, went viral on Facebook. “You Will Not Have My Hate,” as it became known, was pithy and defiant; in 2016, Mr. Leiris expanded upon it in a book of the same name. This fall, on the two-year anniversary of the attack, a stage adaptation was presented here in the city where it took place.
If it all seems fast, that’s because, as theatrical treatments of real events go, it is. There is a good chance many of the Parisians at the Théâtre du Rond-Point, where “You Will Not Have My Hate” had its premiere, still remember the panicked messages they received from friends and relatives as news of the attack broke. In the first scene, Mr. Leiris mentions the ones he got, too, as his 17-month-old son Melvil slept in the next room — the prelude to a desperate night spent dashing from hospital to hospital in the hope of finding his wife.
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Photo: The New York Times
