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Bien lotis
Philippe Malone
Actes du théâtre n° 69.[ imprimer ]
As it weaves through fifty years, the ‘‘social comedy’’ Bien Lotis records the clashes, turmoil, utopias and illusions of a couple going through a move, success, employment then unemployment, while asking questions about the crisis and what it has forced us to give up, and dealing with everyday life and history through a string of short scenes featuring interviews.
Forty sweet and goofy little scenes attempt to highlight the great peri-urban epic through a blend of quizzes, commentaries and flashbacks briskly conducted by a journalist.

‘‘…Bien lotis purports to be a ‘social’ comedy that talks about the broader story through the prism of a confined interior. Instead of employing naturalism, its creators preferred pointing out the absurdity in situations as a way of prompting the members of the audience – TV viewers during the performance – to question their own relationship to urbanism, which is never neutral.’’
Libération, Frédérique ROUSSEL, July 22, 2013

Opened at the Manufacture, Festival d’Avignon 2013.
Director: Laurent Vacher. Set design and costumes: Laurent Vacher. Stage manager and sound design: Michael Schaller. Lighting and video design: Victor Egéa. Cast: Christian Caro, Corrado Invernizzi, Martin Selze, Marie-Aude Weiss.

Characters : 1 women - 2 men - and a chorus
Editions Espaces 34 - www.editions-espaces34.fr

‘‘Are we allowed to say it isn’t very attractive?’’

MOTHER Are we allowed to say it isn’t very attractive?
JOURNALIST How do you mean?
FATHER The architect is very prestigious.
MOTHER Well your building isn’t very attractive.
You can’t say post cards are too crazy about it.
FATHER Mathilde
JOURNALIST Go ahead.
FATHER She didn’t go to college, so…
MOTHER It’s true, I didn’t go to college.
Maybe that’s why.
You’d have to go to college to think that was attractive.
Many years in college in fact. Or you’d have to have lived somewhere else.
You wouldn’t be living here anyway if you’d gone to college.
That building was just built for the books you study when you’re learning about construction so you can live somewhere else.
FATHER Don’t listen to her.
MOTHER Let me finish - we can say whatever we want the boy said.
JOURNALIST Go ahead.
MOTHER That tower block of yours is not pretty. That’s all.
Or maybe seen from a distance. It may be beautiful from a distance.
From the highway, in a car. Or from the train, if it’s going fast.
Or from up in an airplane. Your tower is designed for speed, that’s it. When you speed past it from above, it’s really pretty. From up there it looks like a pretty design drawn by a child in a drawing book. But you’ve got to be very loving to find a kid’s drawing beautiful. So if you’re not a pilot and you’re not in love with the architect either…
FATHER A prestigious architect, remember.
MOTHER Because you have to come back down to earth at some point. The problem for the inhabitants is they’re not living in an airplane. They’re living down here. The toughest part is coming back down to earth. Those architects should come back down to earth every now and then. To get a closer look. When you hit the ground, you don’t see things the same way. It’s like love – I’m not talking about my honey here. But sometimes you need a good pair of glasses.
JOURNALIST So you didn’t like it in there?
MOTHER / FATHER The truth is /Oh yes I did
FATHER Those were the good old days.
Our heads were up in the clouds.