Frères

They use their getaway to get real with each other: Who makes the most money? What should they expect from women and marriage? Who totalled the car in 2003? Nabil tells it like he sees it: “I’d like to live in the woods! It smells like a garden centre… and the wildlife…” and everyone has a good laugh at that. They criticize each other, compete with each other, try to rise a notch in the family hierarchy. But they all agree on one thing: the importance of loyalty. Because family ties never break. Or do they?

After the massive critical and popular success of Mama (2022), Nathalie Doummar continues her exploration of family mythology with Frères, but now it’s the men’s turn to speak. With her familiar talent at portraiture, she creates a gallery of delicious characters and takes a clear-eyed, kindly look at contemporary masculinity. And this time the playwright co-directs the actors herself, assisted in the stage production by our co-artistic director Jean-Simon Traversy. Inspired by unexpected collaborations and a blend of genres, they insert in the midst of this hyper-realistic play set in close quarters the driving rhythms of the music of Étienne Coppée, whose presence on stage punctuates the action with almost supernatural moments. Drawing on rich themes, such as the search for validation, the definition of success and intergenerational tensions, this dramatic comedy depicts, with humour and disarming stabs of discomfort, the strength and vulnerability of ties in the tiny empire of the family.