“Understanding the origin of hatred in Verona: A review of ‘La petite histoire'”

This will be the last time that we will try to have the end of the story, in “piccola” version, a short story chosen to tell and try to understand the origin of the hatred that torments even the dogs of the city ​​of Verona, facing them too to choose their side and to belong to the clan of the Montagues or that of the Capulets. In “La petite histoire”, a text by Eugène Durif, staged by the Théâtre Fébus and on display last week at Le Pari as part of a residency, Romeo and Juliet have long since given up their arms. But the ghosts of their parents have not found peace: Bruno Spiesser and Joëlle Aguiriano slip into the skin of Juliette’s father, Romeo’s mother, gnawed by pain and remorse, also trying to untangle the skein which ended up leading to tragedy and the death of their flesh. Tybalt, Mercutio, Count Pâris, Juliet’s nurse recall the Shakespearean text, while we do not hesitate to summon the famous balcony scene again. Because meticulously, it is a question of understanding how the inevitable happened. In a decor of immaculate white curtains, sometimes lulled by a few notes of Italian romance, the Montaigu and the Capulet end up listening to each other little by little, soon to get along. And by understanding the destructive force of destructive social reflexes. A reconciliation that Bruno Spiesser and Joëlle Aguiriano manage to translate, with a furious emphasis but also with a certain accuracy that ends up attracting the empathy of the spectator.