Nicolas Stemann stages an imaginary encounter between the protagonists of these novels and their authors.

The German director, now artistic director of the Schauspielhaus Zürich, takes as his starting point the novel that revealed the incisive writing of the Algerian author Kamel Daoud to the world, Meursault contre-enquête: the obstinate quest of Haroun, who believes he is the brother of the murdered Arab man in L'Étranger (The Outsider). This brother has no name, even though he is at the origin of Meursault's profound metaphysical reflection on man's place in the world. In this critical homage to Camus, the Algerian novelist constructs a surprising work of fiction that reveals the hypocrisies of both Europe and the Maghreb since independence. With his two actors, Nicolas Stemann extends the story of the novel by staging the meeting between Haroun and Meursault, but also between Camus and Daoud. How can this meeting take place today, nearly sixty years after Algerian independence? How does decolonisation still affect the lives of people on both sides of the Mediterranean?

The respective arts of Daoud and Stemann know how to blend sharp criticism with lively and spirited literary or theatrical play. Using fictions as a starting point, they observe the delusions of history and their implications in the present. This duet/duel of actors set against a backdrop of mutual misunderstandings provokes a caustic, salutary and often mischievous re-reading of history... and of the way we look at ourselves, and at what is outside ourselves.