The French far right's 'outdated' definition of identity

The question of French identity sat at the heart of a play rehearsed at a theater in Sartrouville, a northwestern suburb of Paris, on a recent Tuesday afternoon.

Half a dozen actors sat or stood on the planks of a cross-section of a wooden ship.

“On crée la sous-France — des Fatimas, des Mohameds,” (they are creating the under-France, of the Fatimas and the Mohameds) one female actor shouted out loud. “Sous-France” is a pun on the word “souffrance”, which means suffering.

The play…