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Ctrl-X
Pauline Peyrade
Ctrl-X
photo: DR
Actes du théâtre n° 82.[ imprimer ]
A window opens. A video. An ad. A news flash. The phone rings. Adèle is worried. ‘‘Did you take your pills?’’ Laurent grows impatient. ‘‘Do you want me to come back up?’’ A window opens. Photos of Pierre. Interviews with Pierre. Memories of Pierre. A window opens. On Ida’s love. On memory. On urges. On obsessions. On the past locked in the present of a computer screen. During one night. During a crisis, or perhaps an escape.

‘‘Ctrl-X reflects on love and the impossibility of grieving in a fragmented style with a computer screen serving as a window onto the character’s unconscious. The play strives to grasp the place where the virtual locks the past into the present and replays obsessions of the heart and memory. The portrait of the beloved is drawn over the course of skittish meanderings in-between ads and news flashes, through bits of images and gazing. The writing aims to give substance to the voices that inhabit the solitude of small urban spaces both cut off from time and hyper-connected, where people are caught up in their urges and a new relationship to the world is invented and falls apart. Ida fills a place in the night where desires and fantasies, used to being instantly fulfilled, are faced with the absurd and intolerable reality of absence.’’
Pauline Peyrade

Opening at the Théâtre Le Poche-Genève in April 2016.
Director: Cyril Teste.

Characters : 4 women - 2 men -
Les Solitaires intempestifs

[ The titles in bold indicate Internet pages (windows, pop-ups, videos) that appear on Ida’s computer screen.]

-1-
Ida lights a cigarette.

-2-
SHINING EYE
00:13:52
OTTIS TOOLE I love fires. Fires on three floors. Sometimes I start dreaming and think: ‘‘Shoot! I wish I could see a four- or five-story fire way up there above the buildings.’’ I’d get a real kick out of that –

-3-
The cellphone starts vibrating. Ida reads a text message.
LAURENT you wore me out … you wildcat

-4-
Ida smiles, texting him.
IDA you’re such a lightweight 

-5-
JACK THE RIPPER, HIS TRUE FACE
FRANCK FERRAND Tonight we may finally find out the assassin’s identity. Who was Jack the Ripper? A name, or rather a nickname that brings to mind traps, blood, a sadist attacking defenseless women –

-6-
The cellphone starts vibrating. Ida reads a text message.
LAURENT Are you goading me? Want some more?

-7-
Ida smiles, texting him.
IDA take it easy gramps. Don’t panic.

-8-
JACK THE RIPPER, HIS TRUE FACE
FRANCK FERRAND The Ripper only had five victims, but he owes his fame to his savagery and the bodies that were dismembered, lacerated and staged in gruesome enactments –

-9-
The cellphone starts vibrating.
LAURENT Slut 

-10-
Ida chuckles.

-11-
DEAD AND LOVELY (STUDIO VERSION)
The music starts up.

-12-
Ida opens a bottle of wine, pours herself a glass and takes a sip.

-13-
JACK THE RIPPER, HIS TRUE FACE
FRANCK FERRAND We must get beyond the macabre visions and tackle the enigma. And yet today a young woman –

-14-
DEAD AND LOVELY (STUDIO VERSION)
TOM WAITS She was a middle class girl
She was in over her head…

-15-
MIRACLE E+ THE SLIMMING SECRET RESULTS GUARANTEED!
Lose 15 KILOS in one month WITHOUT MAKING ANY EFFORT!

-16-
DEAD AND LOVELY (STUDIO VERSION)
TOM WAITS He never gave but he got
He kept her on a leash
He's not the kind of wheel you fall asleep at…

-17-
Ida drinks a sip of wine.

-18-
DEAD AND LOVELY (STUDIO VERSION)
TOM WAITS But now she's dead
Forever dead
Forever dead and lovely now…