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Impasse des anges
Alain Gautré
Impasse des anges
photo : Lawrence Perquis
Actes du théâtre n° 37.[ imprimer ]
``It`s like Schnitzler`s Merry-Go-Round, a Barnum Circus of sex. But, in the end, it doesn`t come full circle like it does in the Austrian playwright`s work, because the carrousel machinery is jammed here.
The play opens on a scene in a peep-show. A young woman trying to satisfy her curiosity ends up in a sauna where, after making love, two strangers evoke a terrible family secret that has brought them together.
They fuck in every scene here, or have just done so, or are getting ready to. Slices of life, with love on display. 18 snapshots of failed amorous encounters, a tragicomedy of sexual intimacy, fragments of our compartmentalized lives.
Impasse des Anges is a reflection and amplification of all this, a modern world at the edge of the abyss, striving through sex - among a thousand possible answers - for confirmation that there really is someone staring back at us in the mirror.``
Alain Gautré

``Impasse des Anges is a funereal ballet in which sex is the mask.
Each of them is trying to resolve his confusion or dissatisfaction.
It`s a dark comedy.
You laugh a lot, because the author`s tenderness for his characters puts them into preposterous yet somehow plausible situations, where you can see these human beings fighting for an ounce of happiness.
Couples are formed and break up in every scene, in one evening or over a lifetime.
All the moreso because sex has now intruded upon all aspects of life, or at any rate its image - sex as merchandise. Intimacy has been contaminated.
Sex separate from life is perceived as a place of performance, resolution, consolidation, colonization, and confirmation.
We have never been so alone while in the process of exchanging.
And yet Impasse des Anges shows a human side that is specific to Alain Gautré`s plays, in which humor makes the darkness lighter by being revealed.``

Opens at the Théâtre de la Tempête on 19 March through 18 April 2010. At the Théâtre Georges Leygues in Villeneuve-sur-Lot on 18 and 19 June 2010.Directed by the playwright. Set design: Alain Gautré and Orazio Trotta. Lighting: Orazio Trotta. Costumes: Catherine Oliveira. Make-up: Céline Fayret. Sound design: Sébastien Trouvé. Artistic collaboration: Jérémie Bédrune.
Cast: Jérémie Bédrune, Julien Cigana, Karyll Elgrichi, Florence Fichot, Blanche Leleu, Teddy Mélis, Aurélie Messié.

Characters : 9 women - 9 men - can be performed by 3 women, 3 men

(She exits. He gets undressed, lies down on the bed, and beats off.)
JOËL Marie!… Marie!… Mârie!… unh… oh yeah. I want your ridiculous little breasts. I`m globalizing them, I`m nibbling them, yes I`m nibbling Africa. Spread your legs, your raging bush - all frizzy and bushy. What did you call it? Thick? Oh yeah, you slut, you don`t shave down there. Watch me jack off while I suck you - look at my thick cock, it`s swelling for you unh oh yeah I`ve got one of your hairs on my tongue oh yeah your buthy puthy give me your juth good juth. Spplfft. That`s good juth. Ah! wath me jack off. Thow me your little ath. Thpread em. Thow me your ath. Your unfathomable doctoral thtudenth`s gathe. Thow me your ath. Thtick your finger up your ath. Thtick it up there. (We hear the apartment door slamming.) Shit… Shit… What a fucking pain.
(He pretends to be asleep. He pretends to snore. His wife Myriam enters.)
MYRIAM What are you doing?
JOËL (pretending to wake up) Huh? I was pretending to be asleep. Uh no I mean I was sleeping. I`m actually asleep right now.
MYRIAM You`re sleeping?
JOËL Yes. Huh? And now I`m waking up. I was sleeping. And now I`m waking up.
MYRIAM Where`s Caroline ?
JOËL She`s at the neighbors`. They`re doing their Latin.
MYRIAM Did you start the laundry?
JOËL No.
MYRIAM Oh. Right.
JOËL What are you doing?
MYRIAM I`m picking up your things.
JOËL Don`t you have anything better to do than pick up my things, dear?
MYRIAM I don`t feel well.
JOËL Come and lie down, sweetheart. Come on. What have you got to lose?
MYRIAM I`m your wife.
JOËL Precisely.
MYRIAM What`s happening to us, Joël ?
JOËL Nothing. That`s what`s happening to us.
MYRIAM You don`t love me anymore?
JOËL I do.
MYRIAM You love me?
JOËL Yes.
MYRIAM Say it.
JOËL I love you.
MYRIAM Say it.
JOËL I love you.
MYRIAM No. You`re not really saying it. Say it.
JOËL But…
MYRIAM Say it. Take me far away from here like you promised.
JOËL But…
MYRIAM Out in the woods like that first day. Give me flowers.
JOËL But…
MYRIAM Hyacinths. Armfuls of lilacs. You`ve got to give me some flowers. Cover our bed with peonies. Tell me that I`m your love, your wife and your betrothed. Tell me that you love my caresses.
JOËL I love your caresses.
MYRIAM Tell me that you love me.
JOËL I love you.
MYRIAM Tell me that you love the way I jack you off.
JOËL I love the way you jack me off. A bit gentler though.
MYRIAM Tell me that you love the way I suck you.
JOËL I I love the way you suck me but…
MYRIAM What?
JOËL At the moment you`re talking.
MYRIAM Shut up. Take me far away. I want to find a plane ticket on my pillow. Tell me that I`m the only one even if it`s not true. Take us both far away from Paul and Caroline. Make me stop working.
JOËL Huh? Totally?
MYRIAM No. Just for a long weekend. In Sicily, in some fiery landscape. Far away. In the Gobi Desert, or the desert of Atacama. Buy me the best hiking boots in the world. Look at me. Look at me. Learn to look at me anew. Teach me to look at myself anew. And to look at myself anew-anew. Don`t let me disappear. Anchor me to your cock. Shake the dust from my hands. Take the words from my mouth. Remove the loincloth from my loins. Tell me that I`m beautiful, that I`m not fat and that you don`t care.
JOËL Oh. I love it.
MYRIAM What?
JOËL The sound of your bangles when you`re fucking. Ouch!
MYRIAM What is it?
JOËL You never bit me like that before.
MYRIAM There`s a first time for everything.
JOËL Owwww!
MYRIAM Even God began in the dark. Give me junks. Gondolas. Canoes. Dugouts. Shower me with lobsters and stoles. Wear cracked leather in your cap. Stick it to me on the Titanic. I`ll hold your cock while you die in the freezing water. Your cock is the only thing that will be warm. And drive the Lincoln on the roads of the Riviera while I caress myself on the back seat made of tawny leather.
JOËL Marie…
(A beat.)
MYRIAM No you`re confused, I`m Myriam.
JOËL (trying) Myriam… Marie… Marie-Madeleine…
MYRIAM What are you talking about? What happened to your hard-on?
JOËL What are you doing?
MYRIAM I`m getting up.
JOËL Where are you going?
MYRIAM I`m going to pick Paul up at day care.
JOËL It`s only four pm.
MYRIAM I have papers to grade.
(She exits.)