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Pièces
Philippe Minyana
Actes du théâtre n° 12.[ imprimer ]
"You could say that it's a novel about someone's life. You could also say that it's the end of someone's life. You could call it an exemplary life. So let's say that we're following this despoiled elderly man from place to place, from the time of the scandal (his despoilment) to his fall (when he loses his mind)…
Naturally, there is the moral fable (the story of his life) but there is also the project: how can one bring into play the brutality of this news item (the point of departure) and what could be called the 'magical' side of things (meaning the irrational), the objective report (printed in the newspaper) and the 'mythological' element (the sacrificed figure)? How, through discontinuity, can one bring into play what is true and false, symbolic and ordinary, probable and improbable? Again, theatre is a ceremony in which an inquiry (the news) and the order of things (destiny, fate) are combined without jeopardizing the fluidity or the moral fable."
Philippe Minyana, June 2000

Opens at Théâtre Ouvert in October 2001 directed by Robert Cantarella.

Characters : 12 women - 25 men - "a group of inhabitants"
Éditions Théâtrales.

Scene 1
Inhabitants speaking.
They keep repeating things they've heard.
He goes out walking all day long
The flat is big three rooms and a dressing-room
He goes out walking wearing a coat jacket sports shirt and beret (even in June)
He said I turned onto rue des Orteaux expecting the worst
Sports shirt or shirt and tie
It's a big flat mouldings and flooboards when his mother was still there the flat was a haven of peace when she was gone it became a shambles
He said I turned onto rue des Orteaux expecting the worst meaning I knew that the upcoming events would change the course of things
When he didn't sleep in the flat he slept at an ex-girlfriend's place
He goes out walking wearing his beret (even in June)
The flat is big and cluttered
He goes out walking wearing a coat and beret (even in June)
It's a Haussmann flat
How shall I put it he's a raw-boned man who goes for walks and has wiry muscles we spotted him because of his appearance that makes him look distinctly different he has long white hair
It was a sultry and menacing June morning
He said he turned onto rue des Orteaux etc (the trouble came afterwards)
He goes out walking all day long he's about sixty-five years old
One of the inhabitants reads a newspaper article. The event was related in the press.
"You were never married - No never."
One of the inhabitants reads a newspaper article.
"What exactly happened - he kneeled down and said well look here some metro tickets and Odile's little book."
One of the inhabitants reads a newspaper article.
"The barrister, Mr. Papillon, says that under no condition should anyone enter someone's home to sell or scatter his possessions either it's junk and you send over the dumpster or it's valuable and you don't pretend that it isn't in which case it's a misdemeanor etc."
He turns onto rue des Orteaux it's a June morning he's wearing a coat and beret and he turns around the corner and has what's known as a premonition and he turns around the corner feeling so alarmed that he remembers another June morning when he turned around the corner (of the street) and saw what he would never have wanted to see Odile's body and the ambulance.
One of the inhabitants reads a newspaper article.
"To the right in the flat in the bedroom were mother's things at the back in the office were my things and to the left in the room overlooking the street the odds and ends - can you describe the odds and ends - odds and ends can't be described, sir."