H. and F., an old working-class couple, dwell on their past while waiting to die in a hospice. Their dialogue develops in a suspended time and a dark atmosphere. Between recriminations, sadness and bitter memories, time is filled only with their quarrels and the few repetitive actions they perform every day in their room. Pierrot, their only son, who has not visited them for a long time, is a constant presence-absence in their daily life, one of their main sources of discussion.

Adults

Lemahieu Daniel

France

Paris

Avignon

Printed

Typed or electronic text with handwritten annotations

Old age

Couple

Domestic violence

Labour

Unemployment

Society

Worker

Daily

Taboo

Loneliness

Oppression

Sub-text

Homosexuality

Realist

Burlesque

French

Old man

Old woman

Domestic scene

Invisible character

Argument

Awaiting

Silence

Analepsis (Flash-back)

Entre Chien et Loup

At twilight

At the beginning of the year 2000, the elected representative and his secretary organised an evening in a municipal multi-purpose hall, where they met with the 'working classes' to ask them what their dreams were. The politician wants to redesign the local bar so that it is no longer a meeting place for 'not normal people', and hopes to direct people's dreams towards his goal. But nothing happens as he imagined: everyone talks about their dreams, but they turn out to be expressions of inner unease or personal hopes, rather than achievable wishes. By sharing fragments of their drifting lives, the citizens turn the evening into a slump of violent outbursts, which nevertheless leaves room for bursts of infinite tenderness.

Not specified

Villeneuve-lès-Avignon

People

Poverty

Violence

Sadness

Fear

Bourgeoisie

Vaudeville

Music

Love

Tenderness

Wrestling

Blood

Comical

Social vaudeville for fifty puppets and three actors

Patron

Politician

Twins

Social worker

Bride

Vicar

Child

Sung scenes

Inn scene

Dialect as a social marker

Dance

Splitting of the body

Song

Monologue

Chorality

Fight

Gunshot

Fake death

Grammelot

Le rêve de votre vie (à vos souhaits)

The dream of your life (Bless you!)

Armando, the narrator's alter ego, is unable to complete his project to build a watermill to irrigate his vegetable garden. His search for a solution leads him to meet the residents of his neighbourhood and recount their stories, which paint a picture of lives not yet alienated, neighbourhood celebrations and funerals, love and betrayal, everyday existence and dreams. In particular, on this day, the funeral of Stevanato is being celebrated, a former worker who, along with other retirees, had created a community workshop in the church basement to serve the neighbourhood, where anything and everything could be repaired. The engineering project designed to make the statue of St Joseph in the church cry will provide Armando with the solution to make his mill work: he was missing a helical gear mechanism, the famous “vite senza fine” (endless screw).

Entre Chien et Loup

Le rêve de votre vie (à vos souhaits)

Social vaudeville for fifty puppets and three actors

Vite senza fine

Storie del secolo scorso