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Neverland
David Léon
 
Actes du théâtre n° 94.

Neverland is like a reverie, a phantasmatic journey around the legendary figure Michael Jackson. The play, constructed like a kaleidoscope, focuses on the relationship between two young adolescents, Jimmy and Mikaël, an ambiguous relationship that dances between the real facts and how they are transformed by the imagination. Numerous "twins" gravitate around them, doubles – children or adults –fascinated by the iconic singer, while a voice periodically analyzes who Michael was in comical scientific language. The play is also haunted by the shadow of Jackson's father and by his wounded childhood. David Léon deals with the issue of child abuse (already present in Un Batman dans ta tête and Sauver la peau) and of the body as a place of suffering, of tenderness and love, of displaying and offering, and of the quest for self-knowledge. Racism, identity disorders and sexuality also run through the play, which can be taken as profane, funk requiem.

"Michael Jackson was not just a child prodigy, an extraordinary singer, musician and dancer; he was also the human side between adulthood and childhood, a black man who got away from his own people, perhaps a feminine face, one of the living dead in a flotation tank, a little boy exploited and abused by his father, and a pedophile that scandalized American courtrooms. David Léon has drawn from all that material."
La cause littéraire, Marie du Crest.

"Too much silence surrounds David Léon's writing. It's time to break that silence and get this writer - whose words are not for nothing - in front of a mike on France Culture. Words that bore into you, imploding your thoughts and fragmenting your awareness with relentlessness and virtuosity."
Joëlle Gayot, Changement de décor, France Culture, March 16, 2014

"David Léon's writing creates a powerful effect, heightened by the unusual rhythm of the punctuation that shatters the equilibrium of his phrases. The writing is constantly crisscrossed by echoes, shouting and clamor, far-off echoes of the world's chaos. It is the materialization of speech and, beyond that, of the written word."
Jean-Pierre Han, Frictions, February 3, 2015

Opened at Théâtre Ouvert in May 2016.

Characters: 1 women - 7 men -

The waves crash in my mind 22 million dollars they called me 'Bambi' I can't sing or dance anymore I touch the staples with my fingertips I feel my hands with the flat of my palm on the stitches and on the gauze the blood is black under the bandages and the soap washes my stitched and restitched wounds the iodine and mercurochrome on the stretcher I run my hands down my waist "Put your hands on my shoulders" the surgeon said "You'll soon be walking again" I can't see a thing there's so little light Jimmy I want to save the world heal the world and the children there's been so much love so much killing and so many massacres the bloody manatees' dance the Bengal tigers and toucans the Manta rays dying inside me like my children Jimmy I feel the gratitude the light within I cherish I thank and honor the universe its particles moving inside me like my children my God their heart was so dark it's a conspiracy like knives like brass knuckles deep in my soul and then your father committed suicide in his apartment Jimmy it's too late now my mouth is dry so dry from the cortisone and I'm so cold Jimmy I want to go back onstage the spotlights shining on me but I can't anymore I'm so scared I want to heal the world save the world and the children and heal it take my tears like a shroud roll them up like a rosary an ossuary the waves crash in my memory it's blackmail they drugged you my lovely Jimmy a strong drug it's a very very powerful barbiturate your father did it my lovely Jimmy and you told huge lies me I wanted to save the world heal the world and the children there was so much love and so many accusations I'm getting amnesic my lovely Jimmy the waves are crashing deep inside my heart a lawless world hunting whales southern right whales or bowhead whales the breaching killer whales and rorquals the world of those sights is dying and so too our extraordinary stars and birds of paradise there has been so much love my lovely Jimmy. Mikaël said.