Florestant – a young married man – left his wife in their house and went to see Urinette – a prostitute. However, neither Urinette’s touch nor his own imagination succeed in animating the young man. After several unsuccessful attempts, Urinette – desperate and furious – leaves Florestant alone and ashamed.

Glove-puppet

Adults

France

Paris

Printed

Vaudeville

Slang

Prostitution

Brothel

Adultery

Eroticism

Comical

Erotic

Félicien Rops, frontispiece for the Théâtre érotique de la rue de la Santé (1864).

French

Young man

Prostitute

Monologue

Scene of copulation

Situation comedy

Sung scenes

Posture corporelle comique

Comedy of language

Un caprice

A whim

After a long silent prologue evoking the creation of the world and then the fertilisation of an ovum by a “ballet of spermatozoids”, the Poète (Poet) brings into focus the birth of two characters – Homme (Man) and then Femme (Woman). They both feel the “tragic desire to be made complete”. They make love and are thus made whole. But disease, infidelity, weapons and secrets appear with the birth of the city. Homme and Femme forget one another. A new concrete city takes over the old one, and no space is left for emotions. Homme finds himself in a crowd led by money, proprietorship and the market. Why waste your life for machines, Homme asks? Why give birth to children in a world that is filled with pain, Femme asks as an echo? Determined “not to accept the unacceptable”, “not to allow to not live” and to “organise the dream”, they meet again before fading into the growing darkness.

Rod puppet

Metz

Love

Sexuality

Labour

Daily life

Industry

Pollution

Madness

Lyrical

Philosophical tale

Gabriel Cousin, Oratorio pour une vie, L'Avant-scène théâtre, n° 702, 1982 (cover page)

Poet

Love duet

Hands visible

Inserting poetry

Avista

Chorus

Oratorio pour une vie

Oratorio for a life

Botius – a philosopher – lives a happy life. He succumbs to despair and madness when his partner Opina leaves him for another man. He is then attacked by hooligans, who pull his eyes out. Police offices come to his aid, but they lead him near his mother’s skeleton. He falls into a sort of grave and does not manage to escape. He tries to find reassurance in reminding himself that he still has the ability to think. Hooligans urinate on him, and he catches a glimpse of Opina’s legs, which are dangling. A rope appears. He tries to haul himself out of the hole, but the rope only leads to a void. His head is cut in half and his brain explodes and spills all over the floor. His lookalike appears, then so does Opina. She kisses the lookalike and leaves with him. Hooligans are being carried on crosses, on which they are crucified upside down. Their wails torment Botius. He comes closer to them and realizes that they are dead. A cart driver and a horse arrive. Botius calls out to the cart driver so that he may pick up his brain. The horse tears off one of the hooligans’ head and holds it by the hair between its teeth. They leave. Botius meets a pregnant woman and an old man. The couple begins to make love. A child walks up tentatively. The horse comes back and devours the child. Botius asks it to eat him too, to put an end to his misery, but the horse goes away. He concludes that his soul must be difficult to digest.