Fanny Ardant prodigious in The Wound and the Thirst

It's been a long time since we've seen the audience stand up to salute an actress' performance. At the premiere of La Blessure et la Soif, based on the novel by Laurence Plazenet (Gallimard, 2009), Fanny Ardant was unanimously acclaimed. The unforgettable interpreter of The Woman Next Door had not played in the theater since 2020. It was in La Passion Suspended, adapted from interviews with Marguerite Duras. She started there fifty years ago.

Alone on stage, the brunette actress this time plays a heroine overcome with love. The story takes place in the 17th century. Raised in a convent, Madame de Clermont was married at 15 to a man who could have been her father. Mother of four boys, duchess, she leads the devout life that was chosen for her.

Until that summer day when she met Monsieur de La Tour. Wounded in combat, the young man collapsed on the path leading to his home. One look is enough, they are overcome with love. And understand straight away that they are linked until the end of their existence. Of course this feeling is forbidden. Monsieur de la Tour is the nephew of Madame de Clermont's husband and she owes him loyalty. Upset by a passion she discovers, she initially resists temptation. Call out to God who seems to be testing her, but hell is paved with good intentions. Madame de Clermont loves for the first time and quickly knows that it will be impossible for her not to succumb. Especially since she is loved in return.

Sumptuous in a shimmering midnight blue dress that looks like it came out of the tale of Peau d'âne (creation by Michel Dussarrat), Fanny Ardant carries this intimate show with great accuracy. Eyes shining with joy or sadness, fists clenched, beneath her haughty features, Madame de Clermont sees her heart explode and her body extricate itself from the shackles of a conventional society, experiencing enjoyment. His soul is also torn apart in struggle with the divine law which appears implacable. Nothing matters anymore than this other to whom she gives herself and from whom she will be separated. The music of Armand Amar marks the dark hours.

At the beginning, Fanny Ardant is in a mystical twilight. We first focus on his warm, radio-friendly, recognizable voice. Catherine Schaub's minimalist staging is more obvious than obvious. The actress also plays the role of the lover in Jean Haas' set: a window, black curtains and seats covered in gray fabric - one will act as a bed - and a prie-dieu. Laurence Plazenet pruned her book, a sum of more than 560 pages with a billhook, deleted an important character to tighten the plot around a woman who reveals herself to herself through a passion. Fanny Ardant still has stage fright. She said: “Theatre, never again. » Fortunately, she changed her mind.

Until June 1, Studio Marigny (Paris 8th). Such. : 01 86 47 72 77.

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