In his collection of short plays, Theatre without Animals, French author Jean-Michel Ribes takes us to a world tinged with absurdity and humour. In each play, Ribes confronts us with the reality of our static and measured daily lives from which there seems no escape. A series of unplanned events and seemingly absurd moments remind us that our lives are not entirely set in stone. Ribes introduces us to a cleaner who suddenly realises he is more intelligent than his brother, a writer; a father incapable of remembering his daughter’s name; two colleagues rediscovering each other after sharing the same office for more than 10 years; a group of friends rethinking the theory of evolution and a women begging her husband to congratulate her sister for her latest theatrical performance, pushing him towards a particularly absurd hypocrisy.I played two characters:
- In "Equality, Fraternity", the writer, André Lamotte. He is the older and more learned of two brothers. The younger brother, Jacques, breaks the news that he has become smarter than André as he plays caddie to him on the golf course.
- In "Memento", Luke. I portrayed Luke as an effeminate, uninhibited young guy that frantically undulates to get back to the sea.
This was a Hêbê Production. It was directed by Arnaud Devillé and performed at the Palais des Beaux Arts (Brussels).
Link to the show is here.
The text of this play has been uploaded here.
Equality and Fraternity (Part 1)
Memento (Part 4)