Ismé, l’enfant-soldat (Ismé, the child soldier) was selected by the panel for the Centre de la Marionnette de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (Belgium) and by Lansman Editions publishing house, in a writing contest on the theme of “First Time(s)”. The play is based on testimonies, both written and on film, of girl soldiers. It is set in “an imaginary country, which is at once in Africa, South America, Asia…”. The stage is divided into two parts: “the present side” and “the past side”.

In a country at war, a child soldier has managed to escape a military camp. She now goes to school. As she speaks with her teacher, Ismé’s past comes back to her in flashback. We learn about her past as a girl soldier, as well as the past of the children she fought with – more particularly that of Menka, who, after having been raped and having lost her first child, asked Ismé to take care of her second child.