After experiencing a real triumph last season, Didier Caron's play Le Duplex had a series of sold-out performances for several months, before being crowned by a broadcast on France 2 last June. A deserved consecration. It was enough to convince the programmers of the Théâtre de Paris to ride on this popular craze. Result: the play made its comeback on stage last Thursday, September 12. We were present for this brilliant recovery.
As soon as the curtain rises, two settings impose themselves on our gaze, like two worlds facing each other. On one side, the living room of an old-fashioned apartment, dressed in neutral colors and a “regency” style, a detail that the plot does not fail to highlight. On the other, a modern and refined interior, bathed in warm tones and decorated with contemporary furniture. These two spaces evolve on stage, moving forward or backward throughout the scenes, as if to reflect the contrast between their occupants. Very quickly, everything becomes clear: the first setting is that of the Tissandiers, a couple of retired professors played brilliantly by Anny Duperey and Francis Perrin. The second belongs to the Bergers, their upstairs neighbors, rich and ambitious, played by Corinne Touzet and Pascal Légitimus.
The story begins in apparent harmony: the quartet coexists peacefully in a beautiful building where everyone seems to flourish. But for the Bergers, fulfillment turns to ambition: they plan to enlarge their home by transforming it into a duplex. An attractive idea except that a major obstacle stands in their way: the Tissandiers. You will therefore have to find a way to “liberate” the apartment below… and that's where the trouble begins!
Corinne Touzet was afraid of not finding work after giving birth
During an exceptional interview with Purepeople.com, Corinne Touzet, who played in more than ten plays during her career, spoke about a period of doubt during which the actress thought she would not never find work. “When I became pregnant by choice and desire, I quickly understood that the return was going to be complicated”says the one whose daughter Jeanne, now 30 years old, is a pretty young woman who gets by without mom's help. And for the popular actress to add: “It's one of the problems that a woman can encounter in this profession and perhaps in others surely, that motherhood and getting bigger too.“ But faced with this difficult period, the former TF1 figure found help from another great actor. “When the phone rang, also to offer me the prettiest role in the repertoire, which is Célimène in the Misanthrope. There, as Michel says, I sat down and said thank you 42 times”she specifies about this nice gesture. And it is none other than Roger Hanin, famous for his role as Navarro on the first channel, who did everything to get the actress to join him in the theaterand this despite the fact that she was a young mother. “Except that yes, I had forced myself and I was breastfeeding my daughter and he had to take me with the baby in my arms. And so he took me with the baby in his arms, that is to say that I was breastfeeding between two performances, I wanted her to be with me, for her father to be with me (…) and it remains a wonderful memory”she concluded.
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!
