This Is How It Began, Based on Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s novel Journey to the End of the Night

Our life is a journey
into the Night, into the Winter,
we seek our path,
in the starless meadow.

The theatre and music performance This Is How It Began, directed by Victoria Fota and featuring music by Lefteris Veniadis, is based on the first part of Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s novel Journey to the End of the Night [Voyage au bout de la nuit].

In a rush of enthusiasm, the young medical student Ferdinand Bardamu voluntarily joins the French Army, right after the outbreak of World War I. Soon, however, he regrets this action, as he sees from close up the murderous incapability of his superiors, the brutality of human nature, and the absurdity of war.

Bardamu is no role model; he is not a war hero. His unorthodox stance and rebellious views could be described as nihilistic. They do express, however, the innermost thoughts of every person who, realizing the horror of war and the futility of conflicts occurring in the name of nations, religions, and ideologies in general, prefers to survive and not be turned into yet another dead “hero”, who will forever remain unseen.