Mobile phones, internet, text messages, e-mails, chats : the means of communication multiply but do we communicate any more effectively as a result ?

Six characters in search of love meet up, seduce each other, fall in love, fall out of love, argue, hate each other, split up, meet someone else and start again. False identities, true feelings, lies, sudden sincerity, manipulations, infatuations, great expectations and bitter disappointments all play their part in these chaotic and dangerous liaisons.

Telephones and computers fail to provide the connection each of the characters is looking for: a genuine link with someone else, communion with nature and the cosmos, a way to make sense of their existence.

An ironic look at “le nouveau désordre amoureux” that might make you laugh… or cry.

Extract :

Robert is sitting in Ariane’s flat. Ariane is getting ready to leave.

 ARIANE                      I’m late. You too, no ?

Daniel is writing an e-mail.

 E-MAIL                        Your message filled me with a feeling of immense, disproportionate, unreasonable joy. I’d like to see you again. I’d like to spend some time with you. I’d like to pick up our conversation where we left off, talk about me, listen to you. I’d like to go on finding out about you. I’d like to find out about myself. I’d like you to talk about your life, your childhood, your loves, your family, your friends, your lovers. I’d like to spend hours listening to you, caressing you, kissing you. I’d like to make love to you.

 ROBERT                      I’m fed up with always being in a hurry.

Pause

Aren’t you ?

ARIANE                       Aren’t I what ?

ROBERT                       Don’t you wish we had a bit more time together ?

Pause

ARIANE                       Hurry up, I’ve got to go.

She goes to the door. Her computer beeps, signalling the reception of an e-mail. Robert looks at her. She stays by the door, waiting for Robert to go out.

 E-MAIL                        I’d like to hold you in my arms until you fall asleep. I’d like to watch you sleep. I’d like to wake in the morning to feel the touch of your lips on my sex. I’d like to run my hand lightly over your body. I’d like to go out with you. I’d like to stay in with you. I’d like to go on holiday, swim in the sea, eat in a restaurant with you. I’d like to take your hands in mine, hold you tight in my arms, keep you close to me. I’d like to uncover your body, your spirit, your soul. I’d like to fall in love with you.

 Clair is getting ready to go out. Robert is drinking whisky.

 ROBERT                       Can we try this thing for the telly ?

CLAIR                           What now, this evening ?

ROBERT                       Why not ?

CLAIR                           Have you finished it ? I thought it wasn’t ready.

Ariane is writing a text message.

 TEXT                                       I don’t know how to tell you.

 She sighs, thinks, then erases what she has just written. She summons her concentration to start again.

ROBERT                       You don’t want to do it now ?

CLAIR                           I can’t this evening, I’ve got a dinner.

ROBERT                       You’ve got a dinner ?

CLAIR                           Yes.

Robert discreetly reads a text message on his phone.

 TEXT                                      I don’t know how to tell you. I think I love you…

ROBERT                       You don’t want to give it a try ?

CLAIR                           I haven’t got time. And anyway it’s better to do that sort of thing in the morning when you’re fresh rather than after a day’s work.

ROBERT                       You think I’m fresh in the morning ?

CLAIR                           Our ideas are clearer in the morning.

ROBERT                       You think my ideas aren’t clear in the evening ?

CLAIR                           I think in the evening you’re usually half pissed and you get aggressive.

ROBERT                       So right now you think I’m aggressive ?

CLAIR                           Right now it’s not my problem because I’m going out. Goodbye, Robert.

She goes to the door.

ROBERT                      The truth is you want me to screw up this thing for the television.

She stops.

 We hear Ariane’s voice, without seeing her.

 ARIANE                       (off) He so needs to be loved. You can feel it, you can feel the need. It’s fierce. Every second you spend with him you feel accused. There’s this tacit reproach : « why don’t you love me ? »

Lights up on Ariane in bed with Daniel in her flat.

 ARIANE                       I don’t want to belong to a man. I need to feel free. He doesn’t understand that. His head understands but not his heart. Do you understand ?

DANIEL                        Sounds reasonable.

ARIANE                       I’m sorry, I’m going on a bit. I haven’t quite got over it.

DANIEL                        No tacit reproach here.

Frank is getting dressed. Elly is watching him.

ELLY                              I’m looking for the man who’ll be the father of my children. Does that scare you ?

He looks at his phone. There is a text message.

 TEXT                                      I’ll be a bit late. Clair

FRANK                         Me ? I want four of them.

ELLY                              Four ?

FRANK                         Alice, George, Henry and William.

ELLY                              A girl and three boys ?

FRANK                         Preferably. Otherwise the names will sound odd.

ELLY                              But what if it doesn’t go as planned ?

FRANK                         I’ll settle for Alan, Georgina, Henrietta and Wilhelmina if need be.

ELLY                              Wilhelmina sounds a bit funny.

FRANK                         Then you’ll just have to give me a William like I asked you to. Right, that’s settled then. Any other questions ?

He is ready to leave.

 Robert addresses Clair’s camera.

ROBERT                       We’ve known it since Darwin. Einstein confirmed it for us. Without exception every single piece of research, great or small, continues to provide us with further proof : life is not simple. It’s true at one end of the scale when we examine atoms and particles and it’s true at the other when we come to consider the immensity of the cosmos. And it’s also true at the more modest level of human life. Our interaction with others is subject to endless complexification. Our… Alright, I can see you there – I know it’s simplistic, I know it’s corny, I hate this shit, but that’s what they want, isn’t it ?

CLAIR                           Oh yes, absolutely. No, it’s just the choice of words that…

ROBERT                       What words ?

CLAIR                           « Interaction », « complexification ».

ROBERT                       What’s wrong with them ? It’s perfectly good English. « Complexification » means what it says.

CLAIR                           Alright, I didn’t say anything.

Pause

ROBERT                       What have you got against « complexification » ?

 

Création au Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar février 2013, reprise au Vingtième Théâtre mars-avril 2013. Prix Beaumarchais du Figaro « meilleur auteur » 2013.

 

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