She is a famous writer and he is an anonymous gardener but both suffer from a malaise with life and have suicidal tendencies, it is this solitude that seems to bring them together in the absolute…
Sylvie (Claire Denval), suffering from a lack of inspiration and abandoned by her lover Pascal, gives up suicide and decides to retreat to the old family villa by the sea, to find peace and inspiration. In her Machiavellian mind, she decides to post an ad for a gardener hoping he will be funny and intelligent, and why not take him to bed; a way to mix business with pleasure… Bruno (Ali Boudiaf), cuckolded but still obsessed with his wife Christine, has also just lost his job and decides to respond to the ad. The meeting takes place in a bistro, and the recognition sign is a copy of “Libé” that must be placed in front of the writer. But she takes the wrong newspaper and the meeting is electric because the man is somewhat brusque, a stickler for his principles, and this woman slightly arrogant due to her status.
Ultimately, he accepts this temporary contract out of financial necessity but she quickly decides to play cat and mouse with this man who attracts her and also – but without telling him – to make him the character of her novel. He discovers the manipulation, the prey bares its claws, and the hunter becomes the victim. “It’s not your body I want, it’s my book,” he throws at her in response to her very clear advances.
Light years away from “chabadabada,” we’re rather in the cruel game of “I love you, neither do I.” The clash of two wild beasts performed by two actors with temperament and talent, of the very young company La Java created on the occasion of adapting Didier Van Cauwelart’s book, intends not to stop there. To do this, it needs resources that come from the results of the plays or its activities. It’s not easy when you have to juggle between your passion that doesn’t yet sustain you and one or more “bread-and-butter” jobs.
Despite a long journey, whether on stage, on television, or in cinema for Ali, he is forced to do labor on construction sites or on the stage of a big theater dismantling sets to make a living. The same multifaceted life for his partner, a French-Argentine who can do everything, sing, dance, make people smile or move them. Her voice is used for dubbing, she works as a hostess at events, and poses as a model in art schools.
Despite these conditions, Catherine Lauverjon, a television and film actress but above all a theater teacher, director born and trained in Nice, has managed to present a very spirited play, reconciling “reality” and “fiction.”
The reality is the power of desire and the actors who embody the characters play on a very rich, highly realistic emotional range: affective, sensual, moral, ideological, not forgetting humor. The fiction is rendered by scenic effects that shift reality, rendering subjects and settings timeless. The sand appears in all its symbolism and comes to contradict the notion of weddings…
With Claire Denval and Ali Boudiaf / Directed by Catherine Lauverjon / Scenography by Dom Corrieras with the participation of Lydie Dassonville for the sculptures.
“Les Noces de sable” by Didier Van Cauwelart by the Company La Java until December 14 (Friday and Saturday at 8:30 PM and Sunday at 3 PM)
Espace Magnan / Salle de La Rampe Rouge
31, rue Louis de Coppet 06000 Nice /
Reservations at 04 93 86 28 75 or on www.espacemagnan.com
