Max and Jérôme are two brothers who are completely opposite. As adults, they drag behind them the weight of a conflictual relationship marked by tenacious hatred, deeply rooted in unhealed wounds. Max, the eldest, (Patrick Timsit) perceived as the “failure” of the family, has never managed to emancipate himself from the eyes of others nor from his own failures. Jérôme, the youngest, (François-Xavier Demaison) is the exact opposite: brilliant, accomplishedhe embodies the success that Max never achieved.
This fragile balance, built on years of resentment and unsaid things, will be shattered during a family dinner. Jérôme, desperate, finds himself forced to ask Max for essential help, upsetting the implicit hierarchy that governed their relationship. This request acts like a detonator: between the two brothers, reproaches spring forth, frustrations explode, and old resentments resurface with contained violence.
The scene is set in a dining room under the helpless gaze of the parents, played by Claire Nadeau and Michel Jonasz, masterful in their clumsy attempts to ease tensions. By turns conciliatory, distraught and overwhelmed, they strive to maintain a facade of family unity that is inexorably cracking.
Dark humor
Samuel Benchetrit accurately captures the explosive dynamics of family relationshipsthis fertile ground of raw passions and irreparable wounds. Through incisive dialogueshe explores this paradox where love can also become a destructive weapon.
The piece settles gently, almost innocently, into a rhythm that seems innocuous, before suddenly tipping into a fierce confrontation… Humor, often black, serves as a relief.
Between rage and tenderness
Timsit and Demaison embody with disarming sincerity these two brothers caught in the grip of their past common and their contradictory expectations. Their exchanges oscillate between rage and tenderness repressed, drawing a terribly human brotherhood, where each will recognize each other through a word, a situation, an emotion.
The storm eventually subsides, but not without leaving behind shards of truth and raw games. If the conclusion seems somewhat expected, it in no way diminishes the cathartic power of this story. Between the violence of resentments and the delicacy of suspended moments, this piece offers a sincere and moving mirror of family ties, with an emotion that always finds its way to the heart.
Theater Edouard-VII
“La Famille”, until January 5, ticket prices from 10 to 98 euros.
THE EDITORIAL ALSO ADVISES YOU: At the Comédie des Champs-Élysées, the delectable cruelty of “Dangerous Liaisons”
