It quickly won word of mouth, "Dear Parents", the first play by a brother and a sister, was a hit at the Théâtre de Paris. Meeting with Emmanuel Patron, one of the authors (and actor), on a small cloud...
They are four-handed authors for television (their latest series L'amour almost parfait is broadcast on France Télévisions), Emmanuel Patron and Armelle Patron sign their first play, Dear parents, as funny as it is incisive. Urgently summoned, two brothers and a sister arrive at their parents' house. Mine defeat, they imagine the worst. So when their parents tell them that they are going to settle in Cambodia to build an orphanage there, beyond the surprise, they are hallucinating! Why and how did this couple of teachers embark on this project? For an hour and a half, family taboos will shatter, sending us back to our faults with humor and acidity. A subtle and tasty comedy, served by a troupe with small onions. Franceinfo Culture: You are an actor and author of short formats and series for television, what triggered the desire to write, with your sister, for the theater? Emmanuel Patron: I have been writing with my sister Armelle for over ten years. Working together is almost compulsory, we are used to it and we love it. Me, I've been an actor for more than 25 years and quite a bit in the theatre. We said to ourselves that by writing a play, we could suddenly free ourselves from all the constraints of television and cinema. Suddenly, everything was possible, we became a little masters of our story unlike TV where we have the constraints of broadcasters, producers. We had total freedom, it's great: choose our actors, the set designer, the costume designer...Free as air, so...Afterwards, we have to sell the play! In the theater we write for free, unlike on TV where in general we are paid to write a script. There it was up to us to deploy ourselves to find a theater where our play could be read in front of producers and directors, and then once it was accepted, have it programmed and that is a long job. How do you write with four hands? In the creative work with Armelle, we get along very very well, and we work quickly. When we debate an idea, that we do not agree, the other immediately says what he thinks. We have different sensitivities but no ego; we talk about things like a brother and a sister. Me, being an actor, I play the dialogues, which makes us progress faster in the writing. How did you come up with this subject where everyone can recognize themselves? We write a lot on the subject of the family with Armelle, we come from a large family, we have always been quite passionate about this nuclear core, this entity that is family and by the impermanence of feelings. When everything seems to be going for the best, we can't imagine that a disaster could happen, that something could destroy this strong family bond. A bit like the Coen brothers whom we admire, we tried to imagine what could break this link and we said to ourselves that money, a large sum of money, could make all that explode. "We don't give you anything because we love you!" bourgeois family), how each will change. How long did you work on "Dear Parents"? One year intermittently. We work together or we send each other the scenes, we make modifications, proposals, we slim down. And then we have relatives who are referents for us read, they give us their opinion, we move forward like that. You won, for your first play, the Réjane room of the Théâtre de Paris! We presented it directly at the Théâtre de Paris, I had played Husbands and Wives there by Woody Allen directed by Stéphane Hillel, whom I have known for a very long time since I had replaced him in the role of Pierre Curie in the Palms of Mr. Schutz. I love this Réjane room and I asked him if he would agree to do a reading there. To this reading we therefore invited Hillel, one of the co-directors of the theatre, but also many other theater directors and producers. It's a monumental job to do a reading and have the room managers there; they are in high demand, you have to make them want to. A first reading with the actors? We chose actors that I knew, with whom I had worked, we always say that the distribution is 80% of the work of staging. We rehearsed for ten days for the reading. We are seated in front of a table with chairs, we read the piece with the first intentions, the stakes, the silences, the hinges. Today is one of the great successes of the season: surprised? Very,very surprised, we are tremendously happy. We did not expect it at all, this is our first play, the first staging for Armelle, assisted by Anne Dupagne. We had not imagined that the public would laugh or be moved to this point, at times when we did not expect it. Word of mouth worked very quickly, viewers left reviews on the sites, which is very important now, it's a recent reflex that helps a lot because we don't have any stars in the cast. After the press got involved, and there, we are delighted, we had very good articles. It is a pleasure to go on stage every evening, especially since we are all present and that there is not one who has the Covid. Because right now it's a minefield, it's a disaster for theaters: as soon as there is an actor who has the Covid, you have to stop playing for a week. You are also an actor in the play. Is there a special flavor to playing your own text? Playing a text you wrote is great and it's the first time it's happened to me (laughs)! I had never written myself a role for TV or cinema because often it is useless, we are absolutely not decision makers. There we spoil ourselves a little because I write as I speak, it's simpler, there is something more obvious and more daring also because we try things. It's quite jubilant, I like it! Want to continue on this path? Yes we want to continue the adventure. I tell Armelle every day: what we experience there is quite rare, that it works well like that, you have to be careful not to get too used to it either! On the strength of this small success after two months, we want to get back to writing, to reinvent characters.
"Dear parents" by Emmanuel Patron and Armelle PatronThéâtre de Paris, salle Réjane15 rue Blanche, Paris IXeTuesday to Saturday at 8:30 p.m., Saturday at 5 p.m., Sunday at 3:3001 86 47 72 49
im at monki and seriously contemplating whether i should buy it
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