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Au monde
Joël Pommerat

S. Bentaïeb, J.-Cl. Frissung, Ph. Lehembre, P.-Y. Chapalain - Photo : Elisabeth Carecchio

Actes du théâtre n° 18.

[ imprimer ]

Some very old men–both powerful and sweet–are in a luxurious apartment. Their powers are enormous but hard to pin down. Their tiniest decisions have huge effects–elsewhere, often far away, in the world. It’s as though their power–those little signs or words, and what others say–have revealed another dimension, some order other than the human one. A Magical Order! (true gods!) Silently admiring, women and young girls watch over them. The world is essentially imagined in this place, yet it is talked about, thought about, followed, lived in, and is still a source of pleasure.

“A play from beyond the realm of theatre–or what’s left of theatre after all references are gone and new ones are continually reborn. Shades, sounds, mysterious stories about family, sex, blood and money. Like a dream, plunging into a weird world of the beyond. Joël Pommerat’s writing punctuated with shadowy inspiration resembles Maeterlinck at times, and also Claude Régy in his subtle, deadly sweet art of staging the invisible.”
Fabienne Pascaud, Télérama, 11 March 2004

“There is something of Euripides in Pommerat: the awful family secrets, the probable incest, the possible murders, and the dismal etiquette. All with the air of a disillusioned pastiche. You fear it will sink into the ceremonious. Then suddenly everything becomes clear: those ghosts get some lifelike colour, the shades become animated, the spectres create a symphony. Everything gets burning hot, fierce, extraordinary. Every word and gesture counts as one bites into this fleshy speech. Theatre should always be like this–an adventure wavering between modesty and obscenity and requiring your full, active and silent participation. […] While Pommerat may burden himself with some dark models (Kafka, Blanchot), he knows how to move and entertain you. He looks for what is tangible beneath the strangeness, for intensity in mystery. I haven’t seen anything this fine in a long time.”
Frédéric Ferney, Le Point, 18 March 2004

Théâtre Paris-Villette, 24 February–27 March 2004. Then on tour.Opened at the TNS, 21 January–7 February 2004.

Director: J. Pommerat. Cast: S. Bentaïeb, A. Berthon, P.-Y. Chapalain, L. Codino, J.-Cl. Frissung or J.-Cl. Perrin, Ph. Lehembre, M. Piemontese.

Characters : 2 women - 3 men -
Éditions Actes Sud-Papiers (suivi de Mon ami).

Extract from scene XXII
Footsteps are heard.
THE ELDER BROTHER Maybe this is him…
The husband of the elder sister enters.
THE SECOND DAUGHTER No. (The husband of the elder sister sits away from the others.) I don’t understand this eagerness.
THE ELDER BROTHER Papa is doing everything he can to make the world a better, more beautiful place. That’s why he’s put so much effort into waste, into the treatment of waste and refuse–household refuse for example–as well as everything that’s dangerous for the world and could degrade it. So many substances could turn out to be health hazards. That’s why he decided to put so much into this struggle. We really think Ori would be great for this job.
THE HUSBAND OF THE ELDER SISTER In the beginning your father’s business started out in iron. Iron is what got him started. Many great projects in the world were built from iron, thanks to the determination and spirit of invention of men like your father. Then they saw that iron wouldn’t be eternal, so they started thinking of other things besides iron and opened up to a lot of other fields and essential aspects of people’s lives. And I think they’ve really contributed to the well-being of humanity. That’s one of their greatest merits.
Footsteps are heard. Ori enters.
ORI I’m sorry, I didn’t wake up.
A beat.
THE FATHER Have you made up your mind yet, Ori?