Theater - Extreme Swimmer, Portrait of a Frosty Young Woman

Two women, two bodies confronted with their limits. One, an athlete and cold-water swimmer, pushes her endurance to the extreme. The other, diagnosed with cancer since childhood, faces the daily challenges of the illness. Through their stories, they share the experience of a body that has become foreign, sometimes through performance, sometimes through suffering.

Élise Vigier, who herself has battled breast cancer, gently and discreetly guides this intimate and sisterly journey. Marion Joffle, a cancer survivor since age five, swam across the English Channel twenty years later, braving temperatures below five degrees without protection or assistance. Her journey, like that of the author, exemplifies unvarnished resilience.

Set in a hospital waiting room that transforms into a pool or ocean, the two women reveal themselves through an immersive three-sided staging. The audience witnesses their breath-holds, doubts, the absurdity of situations, but also the fierce joy of feeling alive. Accompanied by an aquatic and underwater soundscape, this encounter becomes an intense life lesson, where each offers the other a mirror of courage and perseverance.