With friends a priori of these comedies which used to be shown on Fridays on television in At the theater tonight. Little pretension, too much talk and a certain skill. Joëlle (Camille Figuereo) and Steph (Frédéric Landenberg) invited Bernard (Gaspard Boesch) and Rose (Barbara Tobola). The first are leather and pop, the second charentaise and night cap. Joëlle, who we call Jo, has her YouTube channel where she treats her flock to Thai recipes. Steph reigns over her bar as a good-natured boss, the type who makes the faithful sing along to the hits on her jukebox. Bernard is a dedicated geriatrician who pampers his patients. Rose is an accomplished mother, we would give her the good Lord without confession. Quick, a host!
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That’s it for the silhouettes. The whole game consists of organizing the stripping, that is to say the stripping of the protagonists. This is where it fails, as the foreplay is so tedious. In the opening, Camille Figuereo plays the Mélusine fairies of the pan in front of her smartphone. Spring rolls are her thing. Oh rage, oh evil gods! The ultra-thin sheet of dough breaks in front of the camera. But Steph emerges as an old rock child. It’s overflowing, the evening will be hectic. A good karaoke will unwind Bernard and Rose who are arriving just now, he confiding in her worries, she prim in her lime green dress.
Serial quacks
The rest is nothing but hiccups. Bernard is not in the mood to hum Johnny Hallyday. Jo’s sauce, in which her Indo-Thai mixture is splashed, could have tragic consequences on transit… But then the earth shakes: Bernard and Rose practice swinging. We must then see Frédéric Landenberg and Camille Figuereo petrified as if they had just discovered the libertine escapades of a grandmother who was said to be addicted to her rosary.
We must also hear Gaspard Boesch and Barbara Tobola, scrupulous as psychiatrists in front of their suicidal patients, when they explain the therapeutic benefits of fine parts. New oxygen for the couple! In the crowded lair of Crève-Cœur, we pinch ourselves and giggle. With friends has just shifted into another dimension, funny and pathetic at the same time.
The crunch of this spectacle is its mirror effect. It returns you to your alcove arrangements. For this to work, we need interpreters who casually open the door to our storage rooms. Guided by Elena Hazanov, they have this talent: they deal with the underbelly of our messy lives. With friends, it’s always better.
Among friends, Le Crève-Cœur Theater, Cologny, until October 13
