“Philip! cries Hélène (Judith d’Aléazzo), the exasperated mother. His son Philippe (Pablo Cherrey-Iturralde) is wallowing in silence. The Formica sink and table in the kitchen and the record player in the boy’s room set the story in the 1970s. The divorced woman and her child cross paths. She waits for him, prepares the meals. She hopes that the teenager will one day have a real job. Office worker, Hélène works on statistics. Live small. Philippe would like to cut the cord, he searches for himself, rebels and is reluctant to see his father who has been absent for a long time.
The young man and his mother love each other, that’s for sure. They pay attention to each other, but the more time passes, the less they understand each other. Everyone tries to exist within the limits assigned to them and nourishes an “inaccessible” dream. A “passive dissident”, Philippe begins to socialize badly and spirals out of control. Hélène worries about her future. Daniel Balavoine sings: “ When we arrive in town / When everyone is sleeping peacefully / In the dormitory suburbs / It’s time when the zonards / Descend on the city. »
Dissident, it goes without saying is one of the two short plays in the Théâtre de chambre collection by Michel Vinaver (L’Arche Éditeur, 1973). Disappeared in 2022, the playwright was a wise observer of society and the business world. Himself a former employee, then president and CEO of Gillette, he had a clear idea of the hierarchical relationships. He talks about the complexity of mother-son bonds against a background of social crisis. Offers an x-ray of their daily life darkened by the threat of unemployment.
Director and scenographer, Hugo Givort boldly, but skilfully appropriates the text, putting it to music and video, in a succession of twelve scenes, so many “ pieces” of a banal existence to cry. The television broadcasts news continuously, but human beings have been replaced by Playmobil figures. The words of the two protagonists stand out in luminous letters on the “walls” of the apartment.
However, Michel Vinaver did not intend to convey a particular message. A lover of words, he makes deceptively innocuous replies collide which reflect the uneasiness of Hélène and Philippe. Both have no certainty to cling to. “ It’s time you found yourself a little girl,’ Hélène says to Philippe, who retorts: ‘And you’re a good gentleman in all respects. »
Judith d’Aléazzo and Pablo Cherrey-Iturralde took some time to find their bearings before winning. Michel Vinaver wanted to “cause friction, a kind of friction, scratches”. He achieved his goal. At the beginning, we are entitled to his thoughts on the theater. The seriousness of the approach would have made him smile.
“Dissident, it goes without saying”, at the Artistic Theater (Paris 11th).
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