After a success at the Festival d'Avignon Off, Le Soliloque de Grimm is playing until April 10 at the Lavoir Moderne Parisien. The opportunity to discover this show as disturbing as touching.
"Comedian, the clodo and acloolic look, you have to be called Depardieu to find a job… "
A squat squat setting. Just enough to give yourself the illusion of minimalist comfort, the illusion of being able to survive… to keep going day by day with just enough to eat, sleep and drink, drink and drink. Grimm's Soliloquy first brought us into the rehashed cliché of the homeless…
In the middle of this sad scenery to cry a homeless man embodied by Fred Saurel, alone on stage, comes out of his Quechua tent. Dirty, shaggy, drunk still from the day before, he launches into pseudo-philosophical, social or political considerations using a humor close to the brief counter. Very present on the stage, by a game that rings true, it is his life that he tells, he, the " tenant of the cold" and those of his friends of misfortune. It depicts the chaotic journeys of a cashier, a railway worker, an actor among others: the pile of poverty of their unbearable life from home to shelter before hitting rock bottom.
Initially, the Quechua tents are still intended for guys who climb to the top, not for those who hit rock bottom… "
Fatalistic, he leads his life of misery – "with us, it's okay, it's dying" – and clings to his happy memories punctuated by memory lapses that are his pillars and his reason for living: his father and his wife with whom he is still madly in love.
With his powerful voice that he knows how to modulate and control, Fred Saurel goes from laughter (yellow) to tears (contained), from one emotion to another in a crescendo rhythm that goes from malaise to despair.
He does not address the spectators, he suffers from the "Soliloquy of Grimm". He speaks to his mirror, he tells himself about his dehumanized life, his decline, his melancholy and his sadness that will lead him to ultimate despair.
Jean-Philippe Azéma's sober and completely realistic staging, combined with the ingenuity of the props of the set, never falls into the traps of miserabilism. There are even times when we find something to smile or even laugh. The viewer cannot remain insensitive to the depth of the character. We find ourselves challenged and moved.
Grimm's Soliloquy paints a realistic and humanist portrait of the homeless to discover without hesitation!
Practical information
The Lavoir Moderne Parisien at 8:30
pm Rue Léon – Paris
Duration: 1h20
