A Weekend With Friends

Had drinks and dinner at Barbara’s place in Étampes on Friday night, and dinner and drinks at Mia’s on Saturday night.

On Sunday a bunch of us (including three of Thomas’ muso-friends from Austria) went to the Thai restaurant across the road from our place for a cheap all-you-can-eat buffet lunch. And after, a group of us went to see On Purge (Bébé)! at a theatre in Montmartre called Le Funambule by a company called Les Collectif Les Ames Visibles.

I’m glad we finally went, as I’d been meaning to go but putting it off for a while. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. There were some good moments and some bad. Most average. This situation, however, leads me to feel like it wasn’t good. Because if it’s just average, then it’s not good...so it’s bad. 

The actor who played the husband was great. Very likeable, charming, and full of life. After the show, we all talked about how we wanted him to be our friend! And the actor who played the baby was fantastic. He totally stole the show. Bizarre and unpredictable.

The actress who played the wife was too much. Shouting all the time but not much joy. We didn’t think the couple really were in love, or would have sex. We wanted to like her, and we needed to really because she was on stage a lot, but she pushed to much and never took any time to be with us. The actress who played the maid, who I think also directed the piece, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was in a real relationship with the lead actor, killed the show for me too. She didn’t play dumb like the character requires. And whenever she came onstage the complicité was cut. The game fell down. They had added these extra little bits in it, like the maid pausing the action and pushing the husband and wife together to kiss, that were unnecessary and strange. The show at times suddenly turned into experimental theatre. But sometime’s it really worked too. Like when the two lead guys started dancing and singing randomly. It was ridiculous, but great. It made sense of what Philippe has been saying about how crazy you can go in Vaudeville.

It was a young cast/company (about my age) and they were full of energy and fun, so that was great, but as a bit of purest for form, I wish they’d stuck more with the text. I think it would have been clearer, and better. But it was very cool to see a Feydeau played for real in it’s entirety. I felt like I could understand French whilst watching it, because I know the English translation of the text now!