Carolina Guiela Nguyen is making waves in French theater. Called “one of France’s most original theater makers” by Laura Cappelle in The New York Times, the 44-year-old playwright and artistic director of the Théâtre National de Strasbourg is upending old-school norms. Born in Provence, her lineage Vietnamese and North African, she grew up hearing French spoken in thick accents—sounds that weren’t often welcome at school and in theater classes. But she never caved, and Lacrima is proof. Over three hours long, Lacrima follows the making of an haute couture wedding dress for a fictional British royal, crafted over eight months by artisans around the world. The multilingual cast, speaking French, English, Tamil, and French Sign Language, includes non-professional actors—another of Nguyen’s rule-bending choices. “It creates a kind of imprint of reality,” she says, “These people still live in their language. They inhabit their way of speaking.” —Jeanne Malle