« In the Open Air » by Laurent Balay

A hot and steamy one-man show.

With Laurent Balay, things are moving!
It begins with the Northern Gannet, that seabird that is an excellent diver.
While the gull is fast, the Northern Gannet is fast, very fast.

It dives into the waves to catch the cod it feeds on, like an actor who dives deep into his poetic world to catch one character, then another, whom it eagerly devours.

Its giant wings spread, it rises skyward, like an actor, flying towards glory.

It must be said that, as a teenager, Laurent was a sailor on a cod trawler, sailing the icy waters of Spitsbergen.
An expedition that would awaken in him his taste for escape, humor, and derision.

A prie-dieu, a coat hanger dangling from the ceiling… the only props for a caricature of the Catholic milieu.
Reading from the scriptures – the letter of St. Paul the Apostle, the Epistle to the Corinthians – a homily, a mishmash of Christian precepts, confession, and always the same old stories about stuck-up parishioners’ asses.
Invited to the Last Supper are the Evangelists, the Tik-Tok priest, a Black clergyman, a kinergist doctor, a marriage coach for parishioners looking for their soul mate, a blind clairvoyant… a flood of wacky portraits, absurd characters, crazy extravagance, and far-fetched one-liners.
We even board a Boeing… crashed into the sea, saved by holy water.

Boris Vian, Bobby Lapointe… they sing, they mime, they dance. De Funès, Dario Fo and the commedia dell’arte, the mime Marceau, Fernand Raynaud, Desproges… We even think of Coluche, a die-hard fan of Beaudelaine. With all due respect to the poet, Laurent, like an albatross, flits blithely from character to character, but, neither awkward nor weak, he also knows how to walk with a sure step to ascend to the pulpit.
Laurent, a strange bird who flutters like a fish in water.

Caught up in the actor’s passion and exuberance, an uppercut to the stomach, breathless, we almost suffocate, then emerge into the fresh air, with the actor’s final confession: « It’s theater. »

Author: Laurent Balay
Director: Natalie Stadelmann
Théâtre du Temps
9 rue du Morvan, Paris 11
June 11th and 18th

©2025 – IMPACT EUROPEAN

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