On Tuesday, November 16, 2021, we were present at one of the performances of Montaigne's Essays at the Théâtre de Poche. The narrative text is adapted and interpreted by Hervé Briaux. What is impressive, and what makes the success of this play, is the feat of transposing a literary text into a drama strictly speaking. A metamorphosis of the intimate thought of a man into a common thought. Montaigne's Essays are Humanist thoughts, they had to be made play, because the objective of an essay marries the theatrical function which is to show the world. Montaigne is one of the first to give lexical tools to think of oneself as an individual. He dares and makes himself capable of thinking about the Self. It's an introspection. He says through his Essays that talking about oneself is interesting, because knowing oneself is essential to approach the knowledge of Man, to find his place in the world, to understand life, and its purpose. But the difficulty was to remodel this work to make it coincide with the parquet. Chantal de la Coste and Hervé Briaux worked together to create this piece.
Staging is a thought.
The staging is thought by Chantal de la Coste. We can not speak of an exhibition scene, but the first sight, is a starry sky. The décor is dark. In the background stretches a black canvas from which emerges small lights, glittery rhinestones representing the stars. This sky plunges us directly into an intimate atmosphere, at night, we are silent, everything is calm. The time of a day conducive to dreams, but especially to reflections, the sky appears and the spirit awakens. A few musical notes accompany these appearances and the silence that takes place prepares the minds of the listeners: we are available. We barely see the actor lying on a pillow to the left of the stage. The stage is divided into three spaces with a simple but representative décor of the rooms of the castle in which Montaigne is located. The bedroom is on the right. The actor is down. It is not just his physical condition that I am describing; True, he is lying on the ground but a reddish light is projected on his body, and the mixture of this light on the natural complexion of his skin makes his bare torso appear like a torso of terracotta, like a torso of red clay. We can naturally think of the origin of man, at least of his biological composition, humus, earth. This also announces the subject. He dozes off, he watches and begins to tell a story, the news item of a civilization. He enters into his reflection with a pleasant story about human habits and customs. To the left of the stage is a pot for the toilet, then fruit, only bunches of grapes and water, which may represent the kitchen, but it may as well be a room in the castle close to the bedroom. Grapes and water are very simple provisions, raw products of the earth. When he eats it, music with pan flute notes (an instrument just as simple and primitive) resonates and swings from left to right of the stage, it may represent the connections that operate in his mind since after he sits down and begins a long speech.This fruit that often represents abundance and pleasure causes an intoxication of thought and the actor passes in the middle of the scene. The center of the stage is raised by a small parapet covered with a black cloth, on which is placed a black stool. These elements melted into the dark scenery seem non-existent, but elevate the actor, sitting or standing, making this central space the literal seat of thought. The center is the central scenic space where thought is played. The thought embodied by the actor.
The actor's I(u).
Indeed, what a game. To embody a thought, to play a thought, it's difficult. How to be Montaigne's thought, how to materialize it, this is the challenge of this piece. At first, the author is shirtless, then he puts on a dark shirt, closes it and then unbuttons it when he passes on the left of the stage. But once in the center, all dressed in black, his face cuts out and emerges from the black background, we forget the body. We focus on his face, the head instead of the mind and we listen to his words, here only the words are the action and we follow it simply and easily. Briaux, makes this speech often unknown or difficult to access, light and easy. It is of perfect diction, both in the fluidity of the enunciation of complex sentences and in the rhythm of its sentences elegantly constructed with a precise vocabulary. This speech is profound but light because it is full of humor and provokes laughter when it tells truths. Here we find the tradition of correcting morals by laughter, at least here of the acceptance of our morals. But another reason why his playing is appreciable is that he masters Montaigne's ideas as well as his own. Indeed, he readapted the whole text. He makes his monologue a tirade of which we are the listeners and the primary recipients. The play takes on the appearance of a conversation where we listen. Apart from verbal language, he knows how to inhabit the stage and knows how to play with its elements. He fits it perfectly. Sitting in the center of the room, face facing us, a white light aims at his face, dividing it in two, at the moment when he pronounces these words: "I am double", reflecting the search for the Self and the still unknown part. The stars go out, we are hypnotized by the only word on stage and we plunge into his metaphysical meditations. The role sticks to his skin, would a younger man have had the presence and physical legitimacy to have a retrospective speech of a lifetime, and a man too old would perhaps not possess such a quick wit. The actor closes with a great twin exclamation of injunction: "life is a struggle" that still resonates when our mind is in the dark.
Our opinion on The Essays
To conclude, Montaigne's Essays, a masterpiece of human thought, is, I believe, adequate to be performed in the theatre. At least Briaux and De la Coste managed to make it theatre. They stage, in a central position, this "divine spirit", yet full of contradictions, but which is made "naturally to seek the truth and to speak it". The text has been remodeled to make this transmission of deep and complex thoughts accessible through the voice of Briaux who discusses, who discusses with us. The light tone carries ideas that are nevertheless heavy with meanings. We also appreciate this humorous speech that allows us to decompress certain truths stated. The simple and uncluttered décor, lighting and music help to follow and follow the path of the actor's thoughts, but also make it possible to move from the places of the stage to the mind very simply. So thank you for making our humanity speak and for resounding the voice of a man who did not live the "life of Caesar", but whose simple life was enough for him to understand his being. Let every age see this room where a man has done the exercise of knowing himself.
