In this show at Théâtre de la Concorde, Rachid Bouali turns family memory into a tender epic, where exile, language, and fiction become tools for telling one’s story and shaping oneself. How do intimate stories, tales we are told, and images from elsewhere shape an identity that is both singular and universal?
“Every morning, my mother would tell me about her dreams… Her breathtaking stories were a clever blend of her native Kabylie and her life as a cleaner, all served up by American actors from the soap opera she had watched on TV the night before. Everything was there: wide shots, shot/reverse shot… I sat facing her as if I were in front of a Metro Goldwyn Meyer screen. And it made me late for school.” This show by Rachid Bouali is a true epic of “ordinary people,” built like a film in which he multiplies zooms and tracking shots, shakes up perspectives, crosses eras and settings, and unfolds his mother’s little world before us: her green sofa, her Elizabethan-style sideboard from Conforama, the TV soap operas she uses like an Assimil method, her discovery of Dolto’s theories, and the day she saw John Wayne for the first time. With The Day My Mother Met John Wayne, Rachid Bouali pays tribute to his mother with magnificent tenderness and precision. Through her, he also salutes all the mothers of the world and tells us, with humor, poetry, and deep emotion, a story as intimate as it is universal. “And it all rings true. With moving sincerity, Rachid Bouali returns to his roots to write the script of an adventure that is both intimate and universal.” Cécile Rognon, La Vie “A funny show, full of humor without any mockery, melancholic, and one that won over the many spectators in the room. To be seen, or seen again, without moderation.” Franck Hallo, Nord Eclair Cast Writing and performance Rachid Bouali Direction Alain Mollot Lighting design Claire Lorthioir Coproduction Cie La Langue Pendue (Villeneuve d’Ascq), le Grand Bleu (Lille), Le Strapontin (Pont Scorff) With support from La DRAC and de la Région Hauts-de-France Stage photos Christian Mathieu Poster visual Sébastien Morel
Price: From €0 to €10
Source: paris.fr — photo: Christian Mathieu