1.2.3. Tchekhov !

Presented by Le Théâtre de l'épée de bois

A triptych of short comedies by Anton Chekhov

Welcome to the world of Chekhov, where comedy mocks tragedy, where nobody truly listens to anyone, and where life resembles a bad play that you are condemned to perform to the very end.

Three stories about men. Three collapses. One and the same genius for failure.

In The Swan Song, an elderly, drunk actor wakes up alone in an empty theatre. Between two pathetic speeches from Shakespeare, he realises that his existence has been nothing but a long, failed comedy. False applause, deluded memories: the curtain falls on a career that never really existed.

Tragedian in Spite of Himself offers us a civil servant transformed into a domestic beast of burden. Endless errands for the family and the neighbours. The list grows longer until it suffocates. What was meant to be a simple outing becomes an ordeal in which every extra request sinks him a little deeper into hysteria. A martyr to everyday life, he bears his cross with a tragic dignity that is wholly out of proportion.

In Duel (an adaptation for two actors of the short story The Duel), two men who have nothing in common, an arrogant scientist and a depressed civil servant, loathe each other to the point of a final confrontation. Pistols at dawn! Except that nobody really knows why they are fighting. Honour? Pride? The monstrous boredom of provincial life? The duel becomes a metaphysical farce in which each man secretly hopes to miss his target.

What links these three texts? Chekhov's art of turning failure into a jubilant spectacle. The characters collapse with panache, howl their despair into the void, and thrash about in dramas they have built themselves. They are grotesque, touching, insufferable, and terribly human.

By: Anton Chekhov

Directed by: Jean-Christophe Barbaud

With: Gérard Rouzier and Frédéric Schmitt

Lighting: Marta Lucrezi