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Sad Lisa
Sabine Tamisier
Sad Lisa
Emile Zeizig http://www.mascarille.com/
Actes du théâtre n° 41.[ imprimer ]
“A modest house. Lisa, the mother, thirtyish, gradually retreats into silence. To protect herself from what? From a hard life? From Franck, her somewhat clueless husband who drinks too much? Luckily the clan is held together by their daughter Lucie, an energetic teenager who is proactive and wise beyond her years. Her deepest wish is to hear her mother speak. Finally.
Sad Lisa is a play about silence, tension, suppressed violence and unspoken pain. Sabine Tamisier’s finely honed writing creates a heavy atmosphere. These are tight-lipped people. It’s hard for people who have been stripped of everything to speak.
The playwright shows an unaffected tenderness full of hope for her characters, without a trace of miserabilism thanks to her fine and concise style. Meanwhile Sad Lisa is playing on an old Cat Stevens record...”
Back flap of the book, written by the Théâtrales staff

"The characters in Sad Lisa are just trying to keep up appearances, a Midwestern family just going through the motions, getting their homework done, enjoying their macaroni and cheese, leaving for work at dawn and taking care of the baby. But Lisa, the mother, has stopped speaking, her husband Franck’s drinking is getting worse and worse, and their teenage daughter Lucie is having a very hard time maintaining a semblance of normality in this home suffering from neglect, like the little front yard. A trauma has shattered the family. The play is divided into 15 fragments, pieces of an existence that is adrift, surrounded by ghosts and sad songs they can’t get out of their heads. The concise, syncopated writing goes straight to the point, with no embellishments or pretenses. Sticking close to everyday life, it creates real dramatic tension, heightened by the playwright’s public readings.”
Fred Robert, Zibeline n°28, March 2010

Opens at the Espace Culturel de Vendenheim on November 11 and 18, 2010; at Taps Scala de Strasbourg from November 30 - December 5, 2010; at Espace Grün de Cernay on December 10, 2010.
Director: Francis Freyburger (Cie Théâtre de La Cruelle). Cast: Éloïse Brunet, Pascale Lequesne, Pierre Henri, Mathias Jung.

Characters : 2 women - 2 men -
Editions Théâtrales - www.editionstheatrales.fr

EIGHTH FRAGMENT
Sunday visits


Morning. Cemetery.
Lisa and Franck by a child’s grave.
She’s holding a bouquet of pink and yellow flowers.


FRANCK Not exactly overflowing, eh?
Cig, Lisa?
No? Right. Me neither.

Silence.
He bends over the grave, grabs an empty vase, looks at Lisa.


Just getting some water?
He goes. Comes back.
Froze. Nothing running.
Freezin’ here, eh Lisa? Ain’t it?
Have a drink over at Gass’s?

She takes the vase from him and gently places the bouquet of flowers next to a photograph.
She climbs on the grave to clean it up.


LUCIE (far off) Pop?! You done yet?
Little bro’s crying in the car. Really bugging me! '

FRANCK All right, Lucie! Hang on. Get in the car. You’ll catch your death!
Motioning
Get in!

LUCIE Fuck these Sunday visits!
Always on my case.

FRANCK Lucie!

Lisa gets up and wipes her hands on her coat.
Then exits.
Franck stands there, watching her go, staring at the photograph.
He rubs his face.

I can’t take it.
I can’t take it.
To Lisa
Wait.
Lisa, wait for me.
He exits.
Lucie runs onstage across from where Frank was.
She goes over to the grave and stares at the photograph, clenching her fists.


Lucie. You’ve gotta stop, OK?
You’re holding me back, OK? Holding me back.
So get going, OK?
Get going or I’ll sic the dogs on you, hear? Get going!

FRANCK (Far off, shouting.) Lucie, what the hell are you doing?
You fucking left your brother all alone!

LUCIE I’m coming!
She jumps onto the grave and knocks the photo face down on the ground.
She exits.