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Et d'un ventre pleure une montagne
Adeline Picault
Actes du théâtre n° 29.[ imprimer ]
Stéphanie has just got herself pregnant by the bouncer in the cloakroom of a discotheque. She had needed to talk to someone and feel some human warmth after getting off her job at a little ski resort that night. With no news from the man, who had been so sweet, and not knowing what to do, she goes back to see him. He kindly asks her not to bother him in future.
In her belly a mountain weeps.

‘‘The playwright has a magic touch for writing lines that are implicit, creating a hyperrealist context in which the reader has plenty of time to visualize the sets and situations. The words are so intense and powerful that the characters automatically come to life the minute they appear. The writing is unrelenting. The characters are unaffected people who just experience their emotions rather than pondering over them. They are born pure and become tarnished as the story develops. Knowing whether or not the heroine has an abortion is of no importance. What’s important is each spectator’s interpretation. And that’s where you can really sense the playwright’s talent.’’
Entr’Actes reading committee

First aired on France Inter in June 2007, directed by Etienne Vallès.

Characters : 4 women - 1 men -

SCENE 1


In front of the ‘‘Dancing Snowflake’’, the only nightclub in Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, a place where bodies are set in motion, an isolated nightclub that isn’t exactly glamorous but can at least take credit for existing. Yes, credit. In a few minutes it will be half past midnight. Ariane and Frédéric, aka Fred to his close and not so close friends, are here, now.
ARIANE It isn’t exactly warm here.

FRED No, not exactly.

ARIANE It’s the snow. It’s bound to cool everything off.

FRED Yeah, bound to. I think – in snowy weather – your skirt cools everything off too.

ARIANE The skirt is for dancing. For floating purposes. It isn’t exactly meant for being girlie.

FRED No, not exactly.

ARIANE Oh. You don’t think it looks feminine?

FRED Yes, I do. Snow is an undeniably feminine element. It’s pretty – snow – on a woman.

ARIANE There are lots of other pretty things on a woman – like fruit, sand, leaves, stars that fall from the sky without meaning to, rebelliousness, curviness, modesty, contradictions, whipped cream …

FRED Nakedness.

ARIANE It isn’t exactly naked here.

FRED No, not exactly.

ARIANE My pantyhose has got a run.
FRED Really? Where?

ARIANE I mean it got caught on something and now it’s all messed up. It’s a pain.

FRED I was making a joke. I guess it bombed.

ARIANE No.

FRED Why aren’t you in there dancing?
ARIANE Because it feels better dancing here, you know, just talking with you and not really dancing. The real dance is happening somewhere else – between the words and silences.

FRED Right. Why can’t you stop shivering?

ARIANE Well it is minus two degrees, and I’m an emotional kind of girl, you know, and some shivering is well worth ‘‘freezing them off’’ for, as they say.

FRED Right. Would you like my jacket?

ARIANE No, not exactly. It’s the emotional girl thing – it won’t change anything.

FRED Then, what exactly do you want?