LAST REGRETS BEFORE OBLIVION
with Pierre David Clavel / Rodolphe Dana (alternating with) Katja Hunsinger, Nadir Legrand, Marie-Hélène Roig, Christophe Paou / lights Wilfried Gourdin / / / / / production Les Possédés / Artist and company associated with la Ferme du Buisson-Scène Nationale de Marne La Vallée / administration/diffusion Made in Production / co-production Festival d’Automne / La Ferme du Buisson, Scène nationale de Marne-La-Vallée / Théâtre de la Bastille / La Rose des Vents, Scène nationale Lille Métropole - Villeneuve d’Ascq / Théâtre Garonne / / / / /
Thursday 27 and Friday, 28 March 2008 at 8:30 p.m.
In a far off past, Hélène, Paul and Pierre loved one another in a house they bought together. For Lagarce, love is also embodied by a place. It has the concrete smells of summer nights and the sounds of shutters closing.
Accompanied by their partners, Hélène and Paul return in order to convince Paul to sell the house. Before oblivion, before death, there is a necessity to return to the past, in its tracks, to do an inventory of one’s feelings and one’s life in order to try to grieve.
"What do living, loving and leaving signify?" asks Jean-Luc Lagarce relentlessly. From Retour à la citadelle (1984) to le Pays lointain (1995) and including, along the way, Juste la fin du monde (1990), he never ceased to portray a man who returns to see his family after long years of absence.
"Herein lies the question of money and thus of passion(s), of utopia(s), of love(s)," highlights Rodolphe Dana. "It is also a question, as is often the case with Lagarce, of tired-out loves and memories, of family histories, of settlings of accounts, of haunted, incommunicable feelings. All of this takes place in the language, the renowned and unique language, of Jean-Luc Lagarce. Those repeated phrases that are never quibbling, simply the desire to track feelings as closely as possible, as faithfully as possible - better to keep silent than to betray."
This play was created for the re-opening of the Théâtre de la Bastille as a part of the Autumn Festival in Paris.
The Possédés collective works on the principle of appropriateness between the age of the actors and that of the characters. The youth of one of the latter made it difficult to portray a teen-age girl. As a result, and in accord with the rights of the play, the role of Lise (Hélène’s daughter) was eliminated for the performance that will be presented.
