Patrick Mottard presents us with his seventh play: On a Zither Tune 2, a first draft of which was presented to us ten years ago. This four-act play is a revisiting of our contemporary history through the actors’ dialogues.
Half a century where the author reminds us of events: the war, the liberation, the shaved women, Hiroshima, the Algerian War, the gathering for peace, the uprisings in countries under the USSR’s yoke, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s statement, Greece and the colonels’ dictatorship, closer to us the tragedy of Mostar, then Islamic fanaticism, September 11th, Madrid in 2004, 2015, …
The dialogues are often between two people, those who love each other, who elevate, who tear each other apart. This play is a hymn to love and peace. A message to those who only know how to destroy because they are incapable of building. The four acts evoke cinema with iconic films, echoes of the historical facts mentioned.
This play will be presented at the Théâtre de l’Eau Vive this June 11th. On a Zither Tune, we think of the third man in the ruined streets of Vienna, a plea against dictatorship, and many other films and events whose theater evocation allows for better intimate discussion, with actors being participants of the facts and events that weave this play.
Is it a drama or an evocation of love between two beings? A bit of both, and that’s the magic of theater, when one declares their passion in front of the audience, which ultimately becomes the lover, where the passion only dies down with the fall of the curtain.
Thierry Jan
