The Day of the Stone or the sad beauty of a separation (…)

Within the circus company Along the wateryoung Mona is a talented acrobat who has become afraid of heights. Quite quickly, the story reveals the origin of this crack in the person of Eko, Mona’s great childhood friend. The latter has disappeared without giving any explanation or news for more than a year, arousing resentment mixed with sadness in the mind of the young woman.

One day, Eko resurfaces. The famous “pebble day”, which owes its name to the stone that Mona intentionally slips into her shoe to make a gris-gris in which to concentrate all her anger and regrets. On the same principle as the film A Day Without Endcinema classic feel good with Bill Murray et Andie MacDowell, The Day of the Stone is an endless repetition of the same day which is replayed tirelessly once the stone is removed from the shoe and thrown into the pond. A game of repetitions which allows the screenwriter, Vero Cazotto multiply the parallels between the days which become more and more chaotic as time… does not pass.

Victim of this involuntary trap, Eko seems to be the only one to remember each day that repeats itself, which pushes him endlessly to try to prevent his childhood friend from throwing the cursed stone into the pond.

Constantly replaying the same scenario initially allows the author to establish comic repetitions bordering on the grotesque, but also to gradually shift the point of view of the story from the perspective full of resentment of Mona to Eko’s distraught one.

In the turmoil of their incessant arguments, the reader finds himself in the position of a “Little Prince” seeking to tame these two fierce characters. A refreshing literary approach which makes no concessions with either of the two “foxes”, openly confronting them with their respective faults. From what could have been a tragedy, Vero Cazot and Anaïs Flogny make a bittersweet nugget, a little pebble in the pond of everyday life which, when it breaks the surface, stirs the reader and invites him to dive in and question his own friendly relationships.

To extend the reading experience, an exhibition will be held from January 16 to February 8, 2025 at the Galerie 9e Art, in the 9th arrondissement. The original sketches and boards of Anaïs Flogny will be exhibited there, reflecting the beauty and precision of her artistic work.