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Guillaume Labbé
Photo : DR
Guillaume Labbé

List of works mentioned in Actes du Théâtre :
Du piment dans le caviar (with Carole Greep)
[ print version ]


Actes du Théâtre n° 63 February 2013

‘‘Writing is like playing tennis or chess, slow dancing, or making love. You can manage alone, but all things considered, it’s better when there are two of you. At any rate, once you’ve tried it, it’s hard to go back to wall-banging when you’ve got someone sending the ball into the corners. I met Guillaume Labbé after writing 4 plays alone: J’aime beaucoup ce que vous faites, Post-it, La Bombe, Meilleurs vœux. It was an informal meeting to read his plays, maybe give him some advice and perhaps help him out. After reading his two plays I thought that, given his budding experiences and young age, he was probably going to teach me more than the other way around. I was taken with his feeling for dialogue, his intelligence, subtle humour and boundless verve … and our meeting almost immediately and quite naturally transformed into a duo. We had found one another.
Extremely complementary, on the same wavelength, taking up the challenge without negating our own styles, we have such a good time that we hope it’s contagious. The nicest thing anyone has said about our collaboration is that they recognized each one’s stamp without being able to say who had written what, because out of our two styles another one was born that is specific to the two of us. Since Du piment dans le caviar, we’ve finished writing another comedy and are in the process of writing yet another. Guillaume has inadvertently taught me about exchanging, sharing, confronting, imploring in writing and, the finest compliment I can make him, I don’t know if I feel like writing alone again with my little right hand.’’
Carole Greep

‘‘I don’t know if writing is like playing tennis or chess, slow dancing, or making love, as Carole has written, but one thing I’m sure of is that it’s impossible to manage alone when making love or slow dancing. And if I’m wrong, then I think I’ve still got a lot to learn from Carole!
Just after returning from the U.S. and getting out of drama school, I was fortunate to meet Carole, who was patient enough to read my first plays (Le Week-end du 4, Mes chers amis) and give me some advice. Her innate sense of dialogue, tempo and structure was extremely helpful right away. When we naturally began writing together, I was awed by her success and tiptoed cautiously around my first attempts at confronting my ideas with hers. Although first attempts are often difficult, her openness and ability to listen immediately gave me great enjoyment in sharing and building something with her.
Since we share the same sense of humor, which often grows out of the dark side of human nature, and both enjoy exploring these dark corners that we all try to hide, there’s no reason why our partnership should ever end.’’
Guillaume Labbé