The Imperfect

  • Theatre
  • Young audience
  • Show
The 2017 archive

Olivier Balazuc

Sartrouville / Created in 2017

Victor is 7 going on 8, an only child who lives in the perfect world of the indivisible trinity “daddymommyvictor.” One day, he decided to start colouring outside the lines. The response is immediate.

The Imperfect © Christophe Raynaud de Lage

Presentation

Victor is 7 going on 8, an only child who lives in the perfect world of the indivisible trinity “daddymommyvictor.” But one day, he stops playing along and dares to say “I.” With that one word, the child embraces the possibility of language and learns about dissociation, and the audience watches as he goes through a new stage in his life. From one age to another, from one group to another, from an emotional way of seeing the world to a rational one and back again. With his usual playfulness, writer and director Olivier Balazuc bases his work on the indispensable and salutary stages in the life of a man-cub, in order to propose a situation we are all familiar with: glorious Victor, in addition to bravely saying “I,” decides to start colouring outside the lines. This triggers a response that is as immediate as it is violent and normative. Disorder threatens the microcosm of the family and unbalances its tidy system. It is a world in crisis as seen by a child that The Imperfect describes, a world in which the triangle of the family is questioned and in which archaic, even Judeo-Christian, models crumble against the son's underlying creativity and independence. “Little Victor disalienates his parents' imagination, and the world doesn't end. Something breaks free and a future of possibilities is reopened.

Distribution

Text and direction Olivier Balazuc
Stage design and costumes Bruno de Lavenère
Lights Laurent Castaingt
Video Étienne Guiol

With Cyril Anrep, Laurent Joly, Thomas Jubert, Valérie Keruzoré, Martin Sève

Production

Production Théâtre de Sartrouville et des Yvelines Centre dramatique national
Co-production Compagnie La Jolie Pourpoise, Le Moulin du Roc Scène nationale de Niort
With the support of École de la Comédie de Saint-Étienne - DIESE # Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
With the help of the workshops of Moulin du Roc Scène nationale de Niort for the decors

L'Imparfait by Olivier Balazuc is published by Actes-Sud-Papiers, in the collection Heyoka Jeunesse, march 2016

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