SACD - Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques
Entr'Actes
home
playwright database
News from Abroad
Translation Database
Playwrights Corner
In the Spotlight
New Plays in Print
Actes du théâtre Archives
 
 
Actes du théâtre :
newsletter
 
Site Map
 
[ français ]
 
 

Playwright database

 
     
Une séparation
Véronique Olmi
Une séparation
Photo : Julia Olmi
Actes du théâtre n° 68.[ imprimer ]
Marie and Paul are a couple who don’t live together. They are fiftyish and reside in Paris. One morning Marie writes Paul a Dear John letter. Shattered by the news, Paul replies immediately, refusing to accept it. He loves her and will not separate. And she loves him too, of that he is certain. Une Séparation is an epistolary play that unravels what was a magnificent love story, from the first encounter to the last day, with its dazzling moments, doubts, mistakes and suffering.

‘‘A play full of charm and cheekiness […] Véronique Olmi’s style is both powerful and gentle.’’
Armelle Héliot, Coup de Cœur Figaroscope, October 30 – November 5, 2013

‘‘In Véronique Olmi’s plays, wickedness is always cloaked in modesty. Her elegant style embodies the characters’ feelings very faithfully.’’
Macha Sery Le Monde des Livres

‘‘In Une séparation she evokes situations, creates characters whose words (and worries) speak to everyone. She strives to reach the essence and truth in people, and is remarkably successful at it.’’
Thomas Beaudeau www.fousdethéâtre.com

"A love story that runs aground on a pebble beach in Nice, and on the cobblestones of Paris. A separation that Marie decides upon one moonless night without her other half. Then she begins this daily exchange of letters with Paul, like a message in a bottle thrown out to sea. Their story is reborn under our very eyes, intimate, full of anger and delicacy, of listening, hope and incomprehension. They find each other again through their correspondence, probably closer than ever before, and take us with them on the tightrope of their fate."
Jean-Philippe Puymartin, director and actor in Véronique Olmi’s Une Séparation

Opens at the Théâtre des Mathurins (in the small theater), October 13, 2013.
Director: Jean‐Philippe Puymartin. Lighting: Frank Thevenon. Music: Vincent-Marie Bouvot. Set design: Géraldine Allier. Cast: Véronique Olmi and Jean-Philippe Puymartin.

Characters : 1 women - 1 men -
Editions Albin Michel - www.albin-michel.fr/

PAUL Well, since you don’t love me anymore (you don’t love me anymore?), then say it.
MARIE I love you because you’re the only man I know who’s brave enough to show all the different ages he’s been through. From the little child to the fifty-year-old man who’s kept the beauty of his adolescence, contradictions and weaknesses, his laughter, poetry and dreams. There you have it.
PAUL (ironic) And you left me because of that?
MARIE I left you because you’re walking on a tightrope and I’m scared of falling. I left you because (I’m kind of ashamed to say it) I need reassurance, I’m like everyone else, chicken and tired, and I’m looking for a man who’s huge and protective, the kind who doesn’t feed your dreams but you can imagine him taking care of you. So maybe I’ll stop being a warrior in heels, maybe I’ll go barefoot and have a rest too. Like other people.
PAUL Oh, well if you like I can imagine for you how that huge and protective man would take care of you. It would spare you the trouble of those brawny arms that would crush you like a little peanut and leave you in tiny pieces.
MARIE No thanks, don’t bother imagining! Don’t imagine anything at all! We’ve separated now. You live your life. I live mine. We’re not sharing it anymore. We’ve stopped wondering what the other one is doing, or with whom, what he thinks of the rainy day or the sunny weekend they’re forecasting in the papers. It’s true. What will he do, the other one, with all that time and all the days to be filled? Friends keep saying: you’ve got to do something, get out and about! And I wonder why despair should be less risky outside than in? They make me sad, those evenings where everyone asks what the other ones are doing at the moment, if they’ve heard from so-and-so, and whether or not they’ve signed that petition.
PAUL You’re sad? Is that what you’re writing to me? What about that man in the restaurant? Didn’t you find him entertaining enough? It’s going to be a beautiful day on Sunday. Come over. I’ll walk on my tightrope and you’ll have no cause to be afraid since you’re not giving me your hand anymore, so there’s no danger of my taking you down