Flamboyants! (Matinee for schools)

A special matinee performance exclusively for schools and students — recommended for ages 8 and up. Not open to the general public.

Réunion Island-based theater company Tilawcis brings their latest work, Flamboyants!, on a North American tour this fall. This work of documentary theater with music explores the remarkable intersections of Creole culture and identity between the geographically distant communities of Réunion Island, New Orleans, and Puerto Rico through music, storytelling, and gorgeous projections.

Five languages are spoken on stage, and nearly a dozen instruments are played, fusing maloya, bomba, and Mardi Gras Indians songs. The piece explores themes of memory, identity, resilience, connection, and cultural transmission through the prism of the Creole experience. It shines a light on the richness of Creole cultures and their capacity to overcome historical oppression.

Flamboyants! is a philosophy as much as it is a work of theater. Despite the 10,000 miles that separate Réunion from New Orleans, the Creole languages spoken in those two places are close linguistic cousins. Maloya musicians use the same Canna indica seeds in their kayamb instrument (a rectangular rattle made of sugar cane tubes) as bomba musicians use to create maracas in Puerto Rico. While the ties between these cultures have long been lost, their ancient, resilient wisdom, connected by the African diaspora, once again finds a home on stage in the celebration of Creole identity that is Flamboyants!

Plot Summary

Réunion Island. While a cyclone rages, a man curses his name before throwing himself in the Indian Ocean. He has no idea what repercussions this action will have on the other side of the world. From Puerto Rico to New Orleans, Creole peoples will unite to teach him his true history. A work of musical theater, documentary and fictional, even fantastical in certain moments, Flamboyants! asks us to interrogate what stories our own names carry, the ways we're interconnected, and the cultural resilience of those who fight to not be forgotten.

Follow Tilawcis

Instagram: @le_collectif_tilawcis
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tilawcis/

Information for Educators

The Alliance Française of New Orleans cordially invites you and your students to a special live theater performance of Flamboyants!, presented by the Réunion Island-based theater company Tilawcis.

This educational and immersive event takes place on September 25, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 11:20 AM at Dixon Hall, Tulane University.

Flamboyants! is a dynamic work of documentary and musical theater making its North American tour this fall. The production welcomes students into an extraordinary cross-cultural journey, exploring the shared heritage, resilience, and identity of Creole communities across Réunion Island, New Orleans, and Puerto Rico.

This show is ideal for students in grades 3–12 who are currently enrolled in French, Spanish, Social Studies, Music, Arts, and History classes.

This is presented in partnership with the Albertine Foundation, Institut Français, Tulane University, and the French Foreign Cultural Ministry.

Flamboyants! will be performed in five languages and featuring nearly a dozen live instruments. The show blends traditional rhythms including maloya, bomba, and Mardi Gras Indian songs as the performers delve into identity, memory, linguistic roots, the African diaspora, and the ways geographically separated cultures preserve their heritage.