2023-07-22 07:38:13
« Stanley Yelnats ». The name pronounced with vigor slams in the thick air of the marquee. It sounds like a threat, it screams a promise of punishment, because Stanley is about to be reprimanded for a misdeed he didn’t commit. The young man was simply “in the wrong place, at the wrong time”. But he accepts his fate without protest and finds himself in a recovery camp for recalcitrant teenagers, in the heart of the burning Texas desert.
On a small wooden stage imitating the undulations of the sand, under the circus tent transformed into a theatre, the two impetuous actors – Fiona Chauvin and Guillaume Fafiotte, alternating with Axelle Lerouge and Loïc Renard – take us at a frantic pace into the incredible story of this teenager pursued by bad luck, condemned to dig holes in the desert with his friend Zero. But, as a treasure, Stanley Yelnats unearths an ancient family curse.
The duo of actors brilliantly interpret a dozen characters throughout the story, in addition to their role as omniscient narrators. A finger in the nose, hands in the pockets or a slight change of pace in the gait infuse the right dose of reality so that we see an unscrupulous sheriff, a weak child or a school teacher in love appear on stage. We must not lose the thread, because the play, adapted from the novel by the American writer Louis Sachar, entitled The passage in French, presents an important entanglement of temporalities and places.
The public embarked on the adventure
The mechanics of chance hands down the challenge of adapting the novel into narrative theatre. Its director Olivier Letellier, director of the national drama center “Les Tréteaux de France”, has made his specialty of this particular genre. This storyteller had already adapted a tale by the Brothers Grimm in his play Iron man in 2012.
Thus, to leave all the room for the story, the decor is very modest. Only a few lamps on the edges of the stage indicate mood changes. A few handfuls of sand on the ground delicately symbolize the desert. A rusty fridge becomes a third playmate, transforming in turn into a boat, a bed, a chest or a mountain to climb. The decor is a support of the imagination much more than a clear illustration of the places.
One of the strengths of the play, in addition to the very beautiful interpretation, and the appropriation of the story by the spectators. “You are Stanley, this is your story”, calls out to us the duo of actors, at the beginning of the play. So, we lend ourselves to the game and, at the same time as the young hero, we draw the ball from his family history to understand the origins of the curse and the best way to break it.
Break the cycle of fatality
“Wrong place, wrong time…” We come to question this little phrase from Stanley, which has become his motto, because the play shows us the opposite. Unknowingly, all his mistakes and misadventures lead him to a specific person and place to achieve his goal. Like its name in palindrome, the story loops on itself, showing the need to return to the origins to break the fatality. Freed from the weight of the past, he will finally be able to write his own story.
Built like a mirror, this romantic story sends us each back to our own lives and our family heritage. Are they due to pure chance or are they the fruit of a destiny over which we have no control? Maybe it’s up to us to decide.
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