After experiencing a resounding triumph last season, Didier Caron's play followed months of sold-out performances, before receiving the honors of being broadcast on France 2 last June. A fully deserved consecration. This enthusiasm did not escape the programmers of the Théâtre de Paris, who decided to capitalize on this success. Result: the play made its comeback on stage last Thursday, September 12, and we were present for this flamboyant revival. Together, these four popular figures laugh, sing, scream, run, jump. So much so that they themselves are losing control. Like this moment when Corinne Touzet no longer seems to be able to hold back her laughter in the face of Pascal Légitimus's replies. She giggles, the audience is hilarious. And it’s like that throughout the play. His comrade Francis Perrin is not to be outdone. A character trait that seems similar to the one he has in the city, as we saw during his interview for Purepeople.
As for the pitch of the piece, it already has something to envy! The story opens with apparent harmony: the two couples live together peacefully in a plush building where everyone seems to flourish. But for the Bergers (Touzet and Légitimus), fulfillment quickly gives way to ambition: they dream of transforming their apartment into a duplex. An attractive idea, but which comes up against a major obstacle: the Tissandiers (Anny Duperey and Perrin). From then on, all means are good to “liberate” the apartment below… and that’s how the problems begin!
Francis Perrin: his life in the south, far from the capital
Francis Perrin is a very prolific actor. Between 2013 and 2021, he brilliantly played Antoine Mongeville, in the series of the same name broadcast on France 3. Outside of the sets, the ex-companion of Caroline Berg is the father of six children, including a boy, Louis, diagnosed with autism at the age of three. But Francis Perrin still has other secrets… The proof, during our discussion with him on the stage of the Théâtre de Paris, the 77-year-old man confided in this declaration he had made about the never again performing a play in the capital: “It's an extraordinary adventure, I initially accepted, I said, seven years since I finished playing my Molière show in Paris in spite of myself, 'I will no longer play in Paris' because I live in Vaucluse, I live in the sun, well, peacefully.” A promise that he has clearly not kept since he has been showing at Duplex for several months. The latter tells us the sudden story behind this project: “There, all of a sudden, I was offered the piece that I found very good and they told me 'it's for a recording, we will play four performances in public, to rehearse, and we will do three days of recording.' An adventure which will ultimately result in a huge tour of the provinces and no less than 200 dates in total. “It's a beautiful gift. Anny Duperey has an extraordinary phrase, she says that it's a show that had the finger of luck and we have to be polite with luck. So we have to go to the end of this adventure which is wonderful and which is deserved because it is a very good play, because it is well cast and because there is a complicity between the four actors”, concludes the actor with 10,000 performances.
Le Duplex is played at the Théâtre de Paris from Wednesday to Sunday until January 5, 2025. Go to the ticket office so you don't miss it!
