Mange-moi si tu peux !

Nathalie le Boucher’s show, Mange-moi si tu peux or L’histoire des 3 p'tits cochons

The show « Partir, c’est ce que font tous les petits qui deviennent grands  »… That is what the mother sow said to her three little ones. Then she took them in her arms. But the farmer is already there! – « Sauve qui peut !  » shouts the biggest… And Poum, Pam, Pim slip between the farmer’s legs…

They cross a wheat field, a river of icy waters, and arrive at the edge of the forest. There, three paths open before them. Behind them, the farmer strides closer; in the forest, a hungry wolf lies in wait…

The grief of separation, fear, despair; recklessness, arrogance, greed; perseverance, cunning; or even cold, tiredness, hunger… these are all the states and emotions that run through the different characters of this personal version of The Three Little Pigs, which the storyteller delights in embodying through a glance, a facial expression, a movement of the body, a dance step…

Nathalie le Boucher: I was touring the small Pyrenean stages, as maids or burlesque characters of Latin comedy, when they passed by… Bhima with his great club, Hanuman, Keechaka, the imperious stamp of the foot, the srngara gaze… My heart capsized. I clung to their voluminous skirts… And here I am in South India, deep in Kerala, as an epic heroine, a divine monkey, a demoness or a mischievous god, stamping the ground with the edge of the foot; the eyes dance and the hands speak a timeless language…

And then one day, I returned to France. I was asked: « Tell us a story!  » I removed my headdress and my Kathakali costume, and took off my make-up. I began to speak… not easy after a few years! I danced a little… Oh! It was all very light!… And then I threw everything together helter-skelter: speech, foot stamps, glances, gestures, facial expressions… I removed, added, adjusted, sculpted… And this is the story I told.