« Very Math Trip » at the Théâtre du Petit Gymnase Marie Bell

Very Math Trip: the Pythagorean theorem, a story of the heart that Manu Houdart happily tells us.

Conceived by and performed by Manu Houdart, this play is an extraordinary « One math show » to watch with the family. Brilliantly, this author / actor – super endearing – makes you love math, this subject too often hated!
Born in Belgium in 1976, Manu Houdart converted to his YouTube channel after working as a maths teacher for 10 years. He then became the author of the best-selling Very Math Trip (Ed. Flammarion). This « best popular mathematics book of the year 2020 » (Prix Tangente) has been adapted for the theater. There, this show has already been seen by 7,500 spectators in Belgium and France (most recently at the Théâtre du Gymnase Marie-Bell in Paris). Having displayed « sold out » at the Avignon Festival 2021, it is scheduled again for 2022.

The staging of Thomas Le Douarec (who also directs the show: « Men come from Mars and Women from Venus ») sublime Manu Houdart, presented as an eternal teenager, a little crazy. The Douarec made him borrow the clothes of the clown. With the pants falling to his knees, the mismatched socks, the suspenders and the bow tie, Manu has everything to teach us the magic of maths! But beware ! We start from his crazy universe, which helps to « detra math ize » this discipline. And what makes us want to share this same passion.

Great challenge! you say. Complicated ? Not at all. Manu Houdart transmits his enthusiasm all the more easily as this science makes him laugh. The show is primarily aimed at former bad students. Funny, very educational, Manu Houdart takes us on an itinerary full of short stories and suspense. When he was a student, he would « fall asleep with a stranger and wake up with a problem »! Having wanted to become a math teacher, he found himself « Bath man », and he became, in fact, a kind of « Math man ».

With dynamism, virtuosity and humour, Manu Houdart manages to lead us throughout the show using equations and figures. Yes ! He explains to us that math is hiding everywhere. Thus, happiness can be conceived from an equation… We understand that we find – casually – the Pythagorean theorem in a football game. We integrate funny theorems and « probability problems ».

Coming out of there feels smarter, but light! And marveled at this panorama of mathematics too quickly painted. With a little exhilarating question: Hasn’t teaching math in high school « missed the boat » with many of us? This universe is fascinating.

At the Théâtre du Petit Gymnase Marie Bell. Until May 01, 2022 – Saturday at 3:00 p.m. & Sunday at 11:00 a.m., 30 boulevard de Bonne-Nouvelle, Paris Xe.

Reservation

On tour in Lille, Strasbourg – Ostwald, Rouen, Caen, Avignon and La Ciotat until November 2022.
In July, during the Avignon 2022 festival at the Théâtre des Lucioles around 3.30 p.m.

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Veronique BURNOD

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