La Provence

Tuesday 22 July 2003

Pulsion

The Innocents

or 16 black-nosed

If you're an adventure lover and don't mind changing your views on theatre, you need to see David Noir's new play.

More gently than with his previous play, David Noir this time tackles childhood, scorned and outraged by society, using the delicate theme of paedophilia. In a series of sequences, the dozen or so actors, who live more than they play their text read out to the audience, take us on a powerful intellectual and emotional experience that takes the theatre out of its conventions. And indeed, we see them all on stage searching for their inner child, the one who does not yet have all the taboos, notably, of course, concerning sexuality or death. And you can feel the influence of Lars von Trier with his Idiots or Pasolini; there is no compromise. And the deep despair of being born into this world, into this society that is difficult to transform, colours the whole play. David Noir opens the doors to a possible world that is less tightly bound to illusory advantages and more free, with his body for example (the happenings of the 70s are not far away).

Catherine GUIZOT

10pm, daily.