the essential
Laughter guaranteed with “It’s even better in the afternoon” by the Grenier de Toulouse on the Escale stage in Tournefeuille until December 31.
This is a piece that feels good and will put you in a good mood for the end of year celebrations. Le Grenier de Toulouse had the good idea of adapting “It’s even better in the afternoon” by the Englishman Ray Cooney. A hilarious show performed at a hundred miles an hour on the stage of l’Escale in Tournefeuille, where the Grenier de Toulouse has taken up residence for ten years.
Starting from a banal story of adultery, “It’s even better in the afternoon” transforms the scene into an impressive ballet of slamming doors like in any self-respecting vaudeville. But unlike Feydeau or Labiche, Ray Cooney does not take himself seriously and his English humor is devastating. The lines are fine, the witticisms enjoyable and the situations funny.
A mechanism of laughter which Pierre Matras has seized with jubilation. The director, who also responds to his playmates, delivers a show of remarkable precision. Like a watchmaker, he regulates the movements, the replicas, the doors that open and close with the regularity of the ticking of a watch.
Playful actors
Nothing is left to chance in this show where we laugh from start to finish. Not even MP Marchelier’s seductive suit, leopard-print leopard leggings and tank top. It was necessary to dare to adorn Denis Rey in such an outfit, capable of playing anything, the proof. Because the other success of the play lies in the comic potential of each actor. Despite the different acting registers, comedy works on a diversity of talents and personalities.
Also read:
Slamming doors and English humor with the Grenier de Toulouse
Deadpan, Denis Rey is as funny and convincing as his parliamentary attaché played by Pierre Matras, spiritual son of Louis de Funès. As an unfaithful deputy’s wife, Muriel Darras has never worn a nightie as well as she has as a tigress-like man-eater. What can we say about Stéphanie Villanti who plays the maid and all she needs to do is throw herself to the ground with her rag and shout “That’s so much the better because I won’t do that every day!” Stéphanie Barreau’s return to the troupe allows for a head voice interpretation of the hotel manager with a German accent and Germanic rigor, of course. The cast is completed by Joan Guilley, sensual ministerial secretary who hides her game well, Yohann Villepastour, in the role of the cuckold in the farce, and Lucas Saint Faust, with a falsely detached air who takes good advantage of the situation…
