To see, to read: the children’s theater of David Lescot

I recently went to see a show by a director who is the author of several children’s plays, David Lescot. This is his very latest creation, the piece is called I’m too green. It is the third opus in a series aimed at children aged 8 and over, in which the author features a ten and a half year old boy who we follow in various significant adventures in his life. The first, I’m too scaredpresented him to us during the summer holidays which separated him from his entry into sixth grade, an event approaching which he was quite terrified; in the second, I have too many friendshe had entered college and discovered the complexities of the social life of college, to say the least intense, and in this latest opus, I’m too greentherefore, the character leaves for green class in the countryside, where he goes with his classmates to discover that rural life is not as peaceful as they imagined.

“I’m too scared”, “I have too many friends”, “I’m too green”: a trilogy

For each of the plays, all the roles are played by three actresses and on the stage, there is a large block of wood in which trapdoors representing the different locations of the story are hidden. The flavor of these pieces is due in particular to the accuracy with which David Lescot makes his characters speak – we know how difficult this is when they are children. The entire trilogy plays out until November 16 at the Théâtre de la Ville. The afternoon I saw the show, the room was full of adults and children, we all laughed like bananas before being very moved by the meeting between the hero and the character of Valérie , thirteen years old, the daughter of the farmers who host this class.

The pleasure of reading theater

It turns out that David Lescot’s plays are all published: Actes Sud published the first two opuses of this trilogy; the last one appeared in Les Solitaires Intempestifs. After seeing the play, as we left the theater, the young person who accompanied me and I obtained its written version. I had the pleasure of seeing this young person take up the text in the days following the performance, to read and reread it with absolute enthusiasm. What is this pleasure made of, I asked myself, the singular pleasure which consists of reading theatre? As for this young person, I believe that in his reading he first sought to rediscover the pleasure experienced during the show. It was in particular the passages where David Lescot made the character’s irresistible little sister speak that brought him joy. This little sister is a person who, as the hero states from the outset, “is already three years old but still makes no effort to speak in an understandable manner”. Made aware of the issue of global warming in kindergarten, the little girl is very anxious about the subject and has decided to dictate at home a law of strict energetic asceticism, stated in these terms in one of the first scenes: “Matte no radiators, otherwise we’re going to die like this.” Understand: “Don’t turn on the heaters, otherwise we all risk dying.” » My son’s (this young person is my son) pleasure in discovering the phonetic transcription of this character’s words was palpable the day he came to see me to show them to me on the page and interpret them for me. “ Look athe told me, the boy is actually called “Me” “. And in fact, “me” is the designation of the main character in writing, a character whose first name we do not know, in the play. In other words, reading this play after having seen it, what he discovered there was also all this grammar specific to the theater book, made in particular of lines (and not of dialogues), of the separation of the different moments of the narrative in scenes (and not in chapters), of these indications which we call didascalies, etc.

“Since I was born”: Sami’s memoirs

If in this case the pleasure experienced then was that of reading previously seen on stage, children’s theater can also be read independently of the stage. As proof, I have the experience I had of reading another play by David Lescot, which I only read, like a story, to my children. Her name is Since I was bornit is the monologue of a little boy, Sami, who is six years old and has decided to write his memoirs. What’s great is that he remembers everything, Sami, and so he will tell us, in turn: the memory of what it was like, in his mother’s womb; the memory of the day of his birth, of nursery or the discovery of work, at nursery school. In particular, he remembers, very precisely, the moment he learned to read – the account he gives of it is one of the many marvels found in this text. I therefore recommend reading it, it was published by Actes Sud; also know that the roomto be seen from 6 years old, will be performed as part of the “Ad Hoc” young audience theater festivalwhich will be held at the national stage in Le Havre and the surrounding area, from November 30 to December 7.

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Tour dates for other pieces to find ici.