There are crowds in front of the Théâtre de la Pépinière in Paris. A lady presents “the doctor of Françoise Fabian”. “When you have a passion, you should never give up,” the doctor prescribed to a friend. Évelyne Buyle greets an acquaintance, Claude Lelouch is joined by his wife, the writer Valérie Perrin, Salomé, his daughter, lifts her hat while looking at Jean-Michel Ribes who takes off his. “Tribute,” she says to him. “Excuse me, Madam,” Charles Berling apologizes, “it is better to take off your coat before sitting down…”.
Frédéric Arditi, the son of Pierre Arditi, born from his union with the actress Florence Giorgetti, moved in at his side. Then, Jean-Claude Houdinière, the producer all smiles, sure of having a good evening. Like Jean-Paul Bordes and Sébastien Castro. Lisa Martino is not leaving Stéphane Hillel.
Black sweater and pants, Pierre Arditi makes his entrance to the music of Kings of the World, the song from the musical Romeo and Juliet. “It’s appalling, a shampooer’s song,” he observes hilariously. Then clings to the servant, the lamp of the theaters which keeps watch when they are deserted.
“Reading is the very essence of my job,” confides the 79-year-old actor. “When Catherine and I were little, our aunt Denise read us Cigale stories written by Paul d’Ivoi. When asked what happened next, she replied: “You will get it tomorrow.” I’ve been telling stories for sixty years. Tonight, I will be your Aunt Denise!”
Before sitting behind a table where a glass of water is placed and putting on his pair of glasses, Pierre Arditi reassures the public who have not forgotten the three illnesses he suffered at the end of 2023. “It’s okay, It’s better, normally, this time, I’m going to go all the way,” he laughs mischievously. The room laughed.
“I drink a sip of water to eliminate stress,” he warns, sitting down with his notes in front of him. I am going to read you two works by Jean-Michel Ribes. “The words I love” and “A thousand and one pieces”.” In the second, the former director of the Rond-Point theater tells his story through tasty anecdotes. “He doesn’t break the candy,” laughs Pierre Arditi, giving him an affectionate look.
The actor summons the shadows of Topor, Jean le Poulain, Jacques Villeret, Antoine Vitez, Ionesco, … Folded in half, he slaps himself twice: “Stop, it’s not you who should be laughing, it’s them.” He then reads a text by Yasmina Reza, Happy are the Happy, which relates an indescribable domestic scene in a supermarket between Odile and Robert. “She paints the portrait of human beings who look like us,” observes Pierre Arditi who had the chance, he recalls, to perform her play Art.
At the end, thunderous applause greets his reading. “I’m not dead yet, if you tell your friends that I’m still capable of playing something, that would do me a favor. You are the best medicine in the world, thank you.”
