LE FIGARO 

Benjamin Puech

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“Classical music is a drop of morning dew”

Softer on the 8th verse” decides Olivier Fredj, who has been a director at the Théâtre du Châtelet and the Théâtre de la Monnaie de Bruxelles. Each performer writes it down on his or her partition; putting the music on the text is no easy task. ‘You’re not concentrating properly’ he tells the prisoners. The professionals, Emma Bazin, the wonderful Fanny Sintes and Jacques Mazeran (who looks like the actor Jacques Villeret, only a sadder version) are there to help them and give them their cue. Hadyl, wearing a PSG T-shirt and large glasses, still forgets his lines, but says he ‘has worked’.  I’m a little anxious’ says the 1m80 tall Byzon, wearing a boubou.

Olivier Fredj wants to give some of Schubert’s notes a gypsy tone, something of Goran Bregovic in Emir Kusturica’s films. Valentin Dubois playing the drums gets caught up in the game. The producer Matias Aguayo gives an electric modern tone to the melodies.

Hadyl is delighted to have discovered the romantic composer. ‘Classical music is like a drop of sweet dew to me” he says enthusiastically. His pals guffaw and he puts them back in their places: “ When you listen to Jul and Rohff, day in and day out, the least you can say is that it makes a change, doesn’t it?”

Sofiane’s monologue is impressive.  “Memory is not sterile so the nightmare can come back,” he says. His words will remain in our memory and in the memory of his friend Haïss.

“That was incredible, Wallah( ‘I swear’ in Arabic)”

The actors recite lines that were written in the workshops organized by the Maison de la Poésie in the Welfare and Old People’s Homes, in the prison at Meaux, and in the Palliative Care Unit at the Pitié-Salpétrière Hospital in Paris. Olivier Fredj put them together and restructured them

‘They know things about time we do not. Thanks to them we rediscover the beauty and the wealth to be found in simple things.’ Then he ventures into a more political speech which is harder to follow.

 

These past weeks, elderly residents in a Home also sent them letters of advice as to how to act the lines and advice on life as well’ says Irene Muscari. One can imagine their lives have not been a bed of roses. But it is strictly forbidden to ask the prisoners any questions about their past. All one knows is that they have been sentenced to at least 5 years in prison ‘“We are working for prevention and reinsertion” says I.Muscari cautiously. ‘The theatre calls for group dynamics and requires obeying the rules and listening to other people’.

Behavior and motivation were what made it possible to select the actors among more than 70 candidates. Yet, acting does not come naturally to these prisoners.

‘The performance they will be giving in the prison itself worries them a little’ says I. Muscari.’ They are playing with their image. Despite their sullen sometimes childish air, these young men are quite conscious of the relevance of the project.

“There aren’t many moments of true expressions in prison,” says Hadyl. “Watch is a way of getting our feelings out, laughing and saying what we feel like.”

What do they think about becoming actors? None of them say no. It would even be too good to be true. Byzon who is a fan of The Hustler, with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, has already written a script.

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