Le fantôme dans la machine

Is it a hallucination? A tasteless prank? An attempt at making “good TV”? And that’s only the beginning: her brother reappears in other unlikely places, asking what became of Lady Di, whether anyone ever patched the hole in the ozone layer… Unfinished conversations and bickering pick up almost as if nothing had changed. Soon, in this atmosphere both strange and familiar, every possible version of her brother comes to haunt and roast her, toying with her certainties. Rousse finds herself engaged in introspection in spite of herself: imagining her brother’s lives means rethinking her own. And you, what would you say if your own ghosts came to chat?

Fanny Britt (Bienveillance, Hurlevents, Classique(s)) has written a clever, playful and touching text, directed by Alexia Bürger (Les Hardings, Les filles du Saint Laurent, Camera obscura), her friend and collaborator since childhood, with all the understated simplicity that is her signature. On stage, a revolving platform whose trapdoors open at the whim of the brothers’ moods, a bit like planets aligning to influence us (or so some believe!), or like a wheel of fate that at times seems about to go haywire. Both autobiographical and pure invention, this show nests its stories within one another like Russian dolls. A deeply moving tribute to all those who are no longer quite here, but who made us who we are… or who we might have been.