An Armchair for the Orchestra – The site of Parisian theater critics » 2 Sisters, written by Marien Tillet, directed and performed by the author, at the Dunois theater

© Cedric Demaison

ƒƒƒ article of Sylvie Boursier

Spiders nest on the skull of a linguist, a cat is crucified in a cupboard, a supposed witch lynched by the people of the village, a violin nailed to the frame of a window, here is the pitch of an incredible thriller seen at the theater Dunois.

Let’s go back in order, an ethnologist, Marc, a specialist in collective hysteria, meets a woman who claims to see the dead. He discovers at the bottom of a cupboard the interrupted diary of a young Irishwoman, Aïleen O’Leary, who has been missing for 60 years near a copper extraction mine. Suspecting a witchcraft trial, he decides to go to the scene of the tragedy to investigate. On the spot he collects the tragic account of Eamon Kelly, owner of the pub. On their return, Marc’s life changes. One does not open Pandora’s box of an old grimoire with impunity; gradually the ethnologist crosses the mirror like Alice.

Marien Tillet is a storyteller, a rare breed traditionally associated with children’s theatre. Like Joël Pommerat he uses the archetypes of the tale, the ogre, the witch, the orphan, to describe ancestral feelings. In 2 sisters fear dominates, the madness also of a community incapable of coping with the blows of fate. The great ethnologist Jeanne Favret-Saada, who spent thirty months in the Mayenne bocage to study witchcraft, said that ” be bewitched is to be caught in the repetition of misfortunes “. When a hunting license tacitly binds a group against a designated culprit, the cycle of violence is unleashed.

Light plays a big role in this show, on the black stage it reveals spaces, a door, a piece of furniture, a jagged tree trunk, shadows in the night. Marien Tillet plays all the roles, alternating between addressing the public and telling the story of a horrific fiction. On the desolate moor a strange sabbath is preparing, like a shamanic ritual; without special effects, by the sheer power of his words, a chiseled scenography and his violin the actor takes us on a journey of anthology.

Run to see this theatrical UFO! on leaving, if a new breath of unknown origin touches you, it means that you remain caught up in the spells or rather the word of this devil of a man who accompanies you like the wolf of your childhood. No need then to fetch a despeller, just remember Shakespeare’s lesson, ” we are made of the same stuff as dreams and our little life, in short, the completion “.

© Cedric Demaison

2 sisterswritten by Marien Tillet, Cri de l’Armoire company

Direction and play by the author

Scenography and Lights: Samuel Poncet

Sound: Pierre-Alain Vernette

May 9 to 12 at 7 p.m., May 13 and 14 at 8 p.m., May 16 to 18 at 8 p.m.

Duration of the show: 1h30

Dunois Theater

7 rue Louise Weiss

75013 Paris

Reservation : 0145847200

www.theatredunois.org

Tour:

From July 7 to 29 in Avignon at 11 Avignon, boulevard Raspail, room 2 at 1:35 p.m., closed on July 12, 19 and 26