Premiere Monday 16 Jan 2023
Link available at mimelondon.com from Mon 16 Jan
"Irresistibly funny, liberating, absurd and touching… two great comic performers"
Le Monde
Théâtre de Complicité original members, Jos Houben and Marcello Magni opened LIMF‘16 with a masterclass in comic performance, produced by Peter Brook’s famous Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris. In Marcel, they are a brilliant double act: Houben, the tall, brisk figure of authority putting the shorter, Magni, through a series of demanding physical and mental tests that must be passed to gain, or perhaps retain, qualifications whose significance remain a mystery. As the tests become more arduous, so Magni’s need to take short cuts becomes more pressing and ingenious.
In a tender and blissfully funny exploration of the perils of ageing, these two distinguished performers revisit their early days with Complicité in celebrating the art of physical comedy and the beauty of the ‘gag’. Jos and Marcello met as students at the Ecôle Jacques Lecoq in Paris. Prior to Marcel they last appeared on stage in London together in Peter Brook’s production of Samuel Beckett’s Fragments, in 2008.
"A gag is a poem. It makes us laugh by the effect of surprise, the virtuosity of the performance and the humanity it reveals. It frees us from day-to-day predictability, celebrates the art of the actor in close complicity with his audience and reveals the universality of our physical condition"
Jos Houben and Marcello Magni
This online screening is dedicated to the memory of Marcello Magni, who died early in September 2022.
Runs: 60 mins
Age Guidance: 8+
Performed in French, with English closed captions.
By and with Jos Houben and Marcello Magni
Set and costumes design Oria Puppo
Lights Philippe Vialatte
Stage management Arthur Franc
Film © Fabien Plasson, Maison de la Danse, 2016
Production C.I.C.T. / Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
Coproduction Tandem Douai-Arras / Théâtre d’Arras
Thank you to the Maison de la Danse, Lyon, for allowing us to screen this recording.
5 сен 2024
