This is a family tree with two branches that we draw Nicolas Devort and Julien Cigana. We discovered this year is the first in a single-stage virtuoso that he gives in alternation at the Lucernaire, In the skin of Cyrano . To tell the story of the boy Colin, who is fighting his stuttering by incorporating a theatre workshop, he switches with ease between the seven characters. The result is stunning.
The recipe is a bit the same in The wood I am made of , at the Théâtre de Belleville. The two actors embody several members of the same family over three generations. And, it is clear that Julien Cigana is born with the same talent as his sidekick. Not that the exercise is new on the boards, but it is rarely used. More than a demonstration of mastery of technique, these two weave a true tale that has the heart and the spirit.
A film of family on the stage
The subject is classic: the family, its unspoken, its lies, its moments of tenderness and love. Almost a sub-genre of comedy in France. It is precisely here, in spite of this invoice to «two-men-show», the scent of (good) films of Cédric Klapisch, and Agnès Jaoui. In this accuracy consistently, in truth acute of the characters, in this search of humanity without make-up or complacency, without trying to trim it to the dimensions of a drama or a comedy. In transposing such as it is, sometimes funny, sometimes sad.
The two actors fall into the role of the grandfather, the mother, the father, overwhelmed… DCHAUVINdominique chauvin
archetypes rather subtle parade in a blink of an eye. A father moody, a mother who resumes smoking learning to be a serious disease, a grandfather, gravelly, a son who became the father of a family stretched too thin, the other stayed old teen vagabond, etc All this in a nudity extreme, with no costumes or scenery. Just a few sound effects and effects of mime. The imagination does everything, once the viewer’s brain will have grasped the mechanism of the show.
The two friends also sign the text. This is not surprising. It is also chiselled and precise than gestures, and natural on stage, but worked a thousand times behind the scenes. With the same grammar of the game, Nicolas Devort and Julien Cigana make up characters of their own. Drawing and length different within a single family. We rejoice, these actors are made of the same wood.
● The wood I am made of the Theatre of Belleville, 94 rue du Faubourg du Temple, Paris XIe. On Monday at 21.15 and on Sunday at 20: 30. Until 25 march. Then on tour, march 23, 2019 to Mourenx (64), April 19, 2019, in Evreux (27) Compiegne, 21 may, Fougeres (35), may 23, at Margny Les Compiègne (60), as well as from 5 to 28 July at the Festival d’avignon, the Theatre of the Body Saint to 18h20.