A ploughman "from the land of Bohemia" - Gerard Mc Sorley - mourns the loss of his beloved and turns toward Death itself - Lalor Roddy - to ask the universal question: Why?

This is the story of Death and the Ploughman, which opens in Project Arts Centre tonight, in a version by Michael West. Director Christian Schiaretti explains: "It was the aim of the author, Johannes von Saaz, to give an answer to death."

The play was originally written in 1401. Saaz was a minor court figure in Prague. inspiration was a personal tragedy: the death of his young wife during childbirth. "The text retains the power of primal emotion," says Schiaretti. "The answer, the only lasting one, the only eternity which can be opposed to our mortal condition, is art."

The universality of the play has been brought home to Schiaretti, who has now directed it in three different languages. French first, then Spanish - Death and the Ploughman was performed in South America - and now English, with the help of Michael West and the support of the Cultural Service of the French Embassy. "It's always wonderful to work on the same text in different languages," says Schiaretti. "Because there are constants, which shows there really is something behind the text itself." He finds that actors are "amazed" when they speak their lines, finding them difficult "to perform simply".

Irish actors have distinctive strengths to bring to the play, however: "The way they can play mood shifts between anger and calm more easily, with more vivacity. You think, 'He's going to kill him,' and then they go back to something more humorous, or distant," observes Schiaretti. "There is also something very concrete in their bodies, more than with French actors, who are somehow more ethereal." As the text itself is quite heavy, a strong presence seems actually to be a prerequisite: "It relies on two strong personalities, and two different body aesthetics", which he was happy to find here in Ireland.

Schiaretti is no stranger here. Married to Irish actress Clara Simpson, he has "two Irish children". But his professional life is firmly rooted in France, where his career is progressing in many exciting directions. As artistic director of the ComΘdie de Reims, he organised "Les LangagiΦres", a two-week event based on the idea that "pure language is the best medium to strengthen the link between artists and their audience". Without any staging, the participants - poets, singers, even craftsmen - expressed themselves directly in front of an audience. During this event, "poetic brigades" were also launched in the city's schools: two actors appeared daily in a classroom . And then they go away, without any further explanation. After the event was over, the "pupils miss it, and often ask for more".

Through "quality programming, a rigorous policy, a big effort to improve training and regular events with contemporary authors", Schiaretti raised the ComΘdie de Reims to a national, indeed international, level. It is one of the few regional theatres hosting a permanent troupe.

Schiaretti's appointment last year as theatre advisor to the French minister of education, Jack Lang, gives him even more work to do. But this is work in which he firmly believes. For him, putting culture at the centre of the educational system - which is currently far from being the case - "would change a lot of the consumer habits of a youth which is losing itself in mindless, alienating TV".

In September, he will become the new artistic director of the Theatre National Populaire in Villeurbanne near Lyon. The descendent of a travelling theatre created at the beginning of the 20th century in order to democratise theatre, the TNP established itself in 1936 in the Palais Chaillot, in front of the Eiffel Tower. At the beginning of the 1980s, . Run for 30 years by Roger Plancho - "one of the greatest theatre directors of the second half of the 20th century" - it acquired "a mythic international fame".

As for his projects for the TNP, Schiaretti has extensive plans.

"I'll have to refurbish the theatre, because it's far from the architectural quality of what I have in Reims. Then I'll have to launch a political debate about the place of the Theatre National Populaire in today's French Republic."

Clearly, a man who intends to remain centre stage.

Death and the Ploughman opens at Project Arts Centre tonight at 8p.m. Booking on tel: 1850-260027