The Attic of Toulouse it celebrates its 80th anniversary this season. For the event, the Toulouse company will pull out all the stops. She will play a series of cult shows and will also take on new challenges with, among others, “La Dispute” by Marivaux. Culture 31 took care of this anniversary season with Pierre Matras, co-director of the Grenier.
Culture 31: Before giving an overview of the upcoming season, what do you think about the 2023/2024 season?
Pierre Matras: Overall, since covid in 2020, every year, people have gradually returned. We feel it in the rooms. Last year, we almost returned to pre-covid scores. So we are very happy. We started the season with “François, the Saint-Jongleur”, which had a very good release. However, it is 2-times one-on-one on Saint Francis of Assisi. It was not a good sale! (Laughter). But it still worked very well. After that, we were completely sold out on “Kitchen and outbuildings”. We had great success with “Tartuffe” as well, and then with “Un air de famille”. We had a great season! We are very happy and above all relieved. Finally, we start to get our heads above water.
Hope to continue this trend, as you will be celebrating the company’s 80th anniversary this year.
We are even going to celebrate the company over two seasons, since it was born on March 18, 1945. This year will be punctuated by the anniversary, it will be very important to us. We start with “2 weights, 3 measurements”, a rather old fashioned show about Raymond Devos. It combines the spirit of Raymond Devos and the modern spirit of Grenier de Toulouse. Laurent Collombert will play the text by Raymond Devos and Loïs Carcassès will be on the piano. Because Raymond Devos was often accompanied by a pianist. We find this cabaret side on stage, with Laurence Roy directing. She has a completely crazy mind. I attended 2-3 rehearsals, and I can tell you that it will be very poetic and funny. Those are the two words that come to mind. With two outstanding actors on stage.
The exhibition “Un fil à la patte” celebrates the season. What makes this vaudeville by Georges Feydeau a timeless work?
We’ve already played it 400 times I think. It’s a cult show at the Grenier, which is why we’re putting it back in the program for the 80th anniversary. I think we created it in 2007 and 2008. We made it dynamic because there were only two actors on stage. The principle is that we are two openers. Opener and usher. And when the curtain opens, there is no actor on the stage. The actors left and removed the set. So we’re going to make sure the public have a good night by showing them what a “wire on the leg” is, without props or decorations. I play the opener and Muriel Darras plays the opener. We brought out Feydeau’s genius, which is the rhythm and the lines.
We got rid of everything that was a bit accidental, especially the accessories! Indeed, Feydeau’s genius is his rhythm, this sense of clockwork. He was French but had a true Swiss sense of watchmaking. And above all, it is a show that appeals to the public imagination. People see costumes that are not there, we imitate them. People tell me that they see the Baroness’s dress in blue, others in pink… It’s very funny. We have a lot of fun with this show. Every time, we tell ourselves that this is the last year we do it, and every time we put it off.
Plus, you’ll pay tribute again to the vaudeville genre in December, with “It’s even better in the evening” by Ray Cooney, the “English Georges Feydeau”. What makes it a good year-end show?
Ray Conney is an author from the second half of the 20th century, and is the most famous playwright in London. He really is the English Feydeau, we’re not going to lie. We are in pure Vaudeville, with a wonderful sense of rhythm there too, with this English humor. He moves slightly from Feydeau in spirit but still has the same real sense of rhythm. Only, this English side is tough. It’s a completely crazy story, it’s going at 100 miles an hour. When you have the right cast and the right setting – because there’s a lot of slamming doors – it’s a musical score. There is something to do with every line.
It is very detailed and, of course, very funny. When I asked Denis Rey to join us on this show, I said to myself: “It’s still vaudeville…”. He read the play and said to me, “This is the first time I’ve laughed out loud in front of my computer screen.” It’s absolutely crazy.
Always smile, because the Grenier will be doing his one-man show from February 6 to 9, 2025. Is it harder to make people laugh than to make people cry?
This question has affected the world of actors since the beginning of time. For me, it’s probably easier to make people laugh. For others, it will be the opposite. It depends on the actor and the texts. There are lyrics that are so powerful and moving that you just need to be in tune to get the audience on board. The one man show is also a difficult exercise because it is not our job. We are not actors. So it’s very complicated. We are already seeing it with Raymond Devos. But we are going to have a good laugh! Everyone will be free to do what they want. We will be scared to death. Once a year, we do that, we get out of our comfort zone with things that aren’t really in our DNA like singing, cabaret and one-man shows. In February, half way through, we let go a little. It is above all a partnership with the public.
This season, the public will also discover “La Dispute” by Marivaux. If you look closely, this piece has the makings of a successful reality TV show.
I think Marivaux invented reality television. He puts four young people in a forest. They didn’t see each other and they didn’t see another young man. Because they were all locked in a house. There are four houses in the forest. They were raised alone by an old goat. And they will be released into the forest for testing. They meet in full view of the world and we see how they connect with each other, how they find themselves, how they approach strangers. We also see how deception works, how betrayal comes, how frustration arises.
Marivaux wanted some kind of scientific experiment, and, of course, without TV, it will be reality TV. What he did is absolutely unbelievable. And on top of everything – there are three female characters and three male characters – all the actors will learn the female roles, and all the actresses will learn the male roles. The public decides every evening who plays who.
As you said, this year, you will be banking to a certain extent on shows that have toured in past seasons. “Irresistible”, “François, the Holy Juggler”, “Cuisine and dependencies”… What is the secret ingredient in a show that works?
If we knew, we’d be billionaires! (Laughter). I still believe that the quality of the casting does 80% of the work. You can’t make a mistake. At the Grenier de Toulouse, we have real actors and I am very attentive about this. Maurice Sarrazin, founder of Le Grenier, sent me this. They are great actors and actresses. After that, you need good text quality. We will try to choose very diverse texts, we will move from Shakespeare to more contemporary texts, with Bacri and Jaoui for example. Then we come back to Feydeau through Molière… Quality is our line of art. Let’s try to play that. And Feydeau’s big comedies work very well, it’s true. But not only that. We also have a drama that works very well. If we bring the public to us, if we don’t take them for what they are not, that is to say morons, and we don’t take ourselves as elites, it can work. But there is no real recipe.
The text and the cast are still essential elements.
Yes, we must have something to say. When we choose a text, it must not be free. Otherwise, it is useless. The public could see that we put this together for nothing. It can be just to make people laugh, but also because we like it. When I put on “It’s Even Better in the Afternoon” by Ray Cooney, it made me die of laughter and I shared that feeling. And when we produce more dramatic things like “Othello”, he wants to deny something.
There are also funny pieces like “Ubu Roi”, which denies things at the same time.
Exactly. There are also comedies that deny things. “Ubu Roi” is an example of this. Bacri and Jaoui, with “Un air de famille” too. Bacri and Jaoui are geniuses! “Like a family”, defines a dysfunctional family and it is huge. We laugh badly. It’s sometimes like knives in the stomach, because we see our mother, our brothers, our sisters, our friends again… It’s crazy detailed.
All in all, can we say that this season will be above all a smile?
I would say this is the season to celebrate 80 years, but also a challenge. Because playing “La Dispute” by Marivaux is not easy. Here too, he tells a lot about the fear of people, the fear of other people, about strangers, but also about man-woman relationships. All under the guise of comedy. But it will be party season. We will celebrate the 80th anniversary with dignity, I hope. Then there is also the last show which is “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. It’s a cult show. It was a hit 8 years ago. It must be said that the text is absolutely amazing. Laurent Collombert played the role of Mc Murphy and he was brilliant. Muriel Darras is also brilliant in the role of the nurse. It is a drama that says a lot about our society. So it won’t necessarily be a season of laughter, but still a season of fireworks.
2024-10-07 20:01:49
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