A man is sitting under a bus shelter at the “Les Ruins d’Or” stop. Dressed in a red sweater, jogging pants, barefoot in his tap shoes, he waits. “Since mum died, it’s true, I admit, I can’t talk too much and then I’m always sick to my stomach. » Thus begins the story of this funny boy embodied with great sensitivity and accuracy by Olivier Martin-Salvan, a body with generous curves and a soft, almost childish voice. He lives alone, wanders in the galleries of a shopping center and recounts as the days go by and resemble each other his wanderings in a continuous stream of words, his still intact wonder at the profusion of illuminated signs, the free tastings, the games -contests, all-out promotions…
A bus shelter for decor
On the stage of the Cité internationale theatre, this imposing bus shelter serves as a landmark for the character, becoming in turn the benevolent Martine’s bar where he has his habits, the La Baleine swimming pool where he tries to seduce Leslie, the cashier, the parking lot of the supermarket where he sometimes hides and falls asleep.
By directing his first novel, Valérian Guillaume set himself a major challenge: to adapt to the theater a monologue-river that no punctuation ever disturbs. And his success owes a lot to Olivier Martin-Salvan who greedily seizes this bewitchingly poetic language and gives depth to a character oscillating between uncontrolled voracious desires and an unappeased need for affection which he satisfies by letting himself searched by security guards.
A hero without prowess or deeds
But at the same time as the bus shelter topples into space, its fragile happiness wavers. “Gluttonous demons” take over an increasingly bulimic and never satiated body, leaving it panting, heart in battle, unable to overcome this avalanche of emotions that make it scream with anger and frustration.
Without ever passing judgment on his character, Valérian Guillaume paints the poignant portrait of a man terrified by loneliness, lost in a consumerist and dehumanized world. Fluttering around the bus shelter while the future becomes clearer, harassed by Pierrick and his band of scoundrels, he whispers: “Why am I not allowed to love and beautiful things. »