An Armchair for the Orchestra – The Parisian theater reviews site » Donkey skin – the party is over, by Hélène Soulié, TPM Théâtre Public Montreuil, Salle Jean-Pierre Vernant, Montreuil

© Marc Ginot

ƒƒƒ article from Nicolas Brizault-Eyssette

Donkey Skinyes, of course, it speaks to us immediately, with the tales of Charles Perrault and the Grimm brothers, then as we are no longer young, the film by Jacques Demy, with Catherine Deneuve, Delphine Seyrig and Jacques Perrin, Jean Marais… Yes. “ But the situation deserves attention! “. The young and pretty princess who, on the strong advice of her godmother, a very precious fairy, escapes from the strange love of her father, a young widower, and goes to meet the most wonderful of wonderful princes. The story does not change, one wonders why it would try to do so, it just seeks to overflow with as much poetry, beauty and humor here and there, and to simply make itself clearer. , that the mystery remains to understand how a donkey can become a man who was a woman. That we can understand (us without worry, of course, but the kids too) what scares the princess so much, what she is suffering from, who the bad guy is.

It all starts strangely, we expect flowers everywhere and the stage is almost empty, a large table, three or four chairs around it and at the very back, huge vertical stripes, white on a black background, which will discreetly dance, open up. , become a splendid screen on which the princess will appear from time to time, lost and trying to hide, listening to the apparently eccentric advice of her godmother, and other characters. It’s beautiful. How else to say it. Demy appears for real at one point and we say to ourselves yes, it’s normal, it’s a 2024 version. Except that the title is Donkey Skin – The party is over. Thousands of years have passed. The donkey is transgender, half handsome guy and real girl with feathers everywhere and incredible pumps of a crazy dancer, the fairy from Sleeping Beauty is superb, lesbian and in love with the donkey who can’t resist either. That said, is the grandmother necessary in this story? She talks about raspberries and they are strawberries. Start of Alzheimer’s? We don’t know where the truth is, the falsehood is, and vice versa. The King-Dad is all clean on him, prettily dressed in white, from head to toe. He is sad and wants to give big hugs. We move from gaming to crime. The gentle, fun madness of the beginning fades. The truth arrives. Yes, a dad can have the idea of ​​“annoying” his pretty little daughter, worse he can do it. And Donkey Skin – The party is over. The title is more than clear. The madness fades to show the pain, the feeling of loss, of guilt. And how we can fight, with the godmothers, the fairies, the donkeys and everything that follows to save the little lost princess. There are marvels here and there, if only in the costumes, the play between true and false, theater and cinema, ultra-rapid change of these costumes which surprises us while the character we have just seen was an image, a film so to speak, and the actress therefore had all the time necessary to change properly.

Everything is more and more obvious, we can complain “when we grow up” that the crazy and beautiful story becomes slow. The “real” takes up more and more space. But it’s not bad to talk about these nasty stories with this clear lightness to children. The walls no longer move, the cake is cooked. The princess can no longer talk to her magic teddy, the story drags on, is it necessary at this point? Perhaps too many subjects want to be discussed and this sometimes results in a feeling of dilution? More punches, why not?

In this magical spectacle, the king doesn’t get torn apart enough by all the fairies and animals hanging around. Damage. Should we have taken advantage of it? But we must especially talk about the enormous impression that this show offers with these splendid costumes, the make-up, the splendid effects of the sets, the play of the princess’s red and white suitcase, which we would almost want to go poking on stage, the chairs, tables, etc., which circulate on stage, we look for a wire, a strand of steel (so to speak). Nothing, if it turns out fairies exist. Their names are Hélène Soulié and Marie Dilasser. For them, “this text was born from a joint desire to rewrite the tale Donkey Skin at the dawn of the #meetooincest movement, and our intimate and family stories. To shed a contemporary light on it, to inscribe in this tale the imprint of our time, (…)”. It’s more than successful and actually ten year olds can go see it. They will have fun, learn, think and why not, be reassured and talk?

© Marc Ginot

Donkey skin – the party is overHélène Soulié, TPM Théâtre Public Montreuil, Jean-Pierre Vernant room, Montreuil

From 10 years old

Creation 2023

Conception and direction: Hélène Soulié

Text: Marie Dilasser in collaboration with Hélène Soulié

Assistant director: Chloé Bégou

Avec: Lorry Hardel, Claire Engel, Lenka Luptakova, Nathan Jousni, Fanny Kervarec, Julien Testard

Scenography: Emmanuelle Debeusscher, Hélène Soulié

Video creation: Maïa Fastinger

Lighting creation: Juliette Besançon

Musical composition: Jean-Christophe Sirven

Costume design: Marie-Frédérique Fillion

Wig and makeup: Marie-Frédérique Fillion, Jean Ritz

Lighting management – ​​video: Fanny Lacour, Emilie Fau

Sound – video: Guillaume Blanc

Stage management: Emmanuelle Debeusscher, Marion Koechlin

General management: Marion Koechlin

From October 14 to 22, 2024

Monday 14 at 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Tuesday 15 and Friday 18 at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

Thursday the 17th at 2:30 p.m.

Saturday 19 at 6 p.m.

Sunday 20 at 5 p.m.

Monday 21 at 3 p.m.

Tuesday 22 at 3 p.m.

Duration 1 hour 20 minutes

TPM Public Theater Montreuil