Synopsis

Untidy flowerbeds, rebellious tufts, uneven slopes where guests get their feet stuck in the carpet of life. Already, the floor isn’t up to the task. Drinks and consolation. A post-wedding feast, the banquet brings together families and joys, resentments and failures. Everyone puts on a comic act, singing and dancing, the tragedy of the spectacle of humanities reunited. The father makes his speech and the mother her interesting one. We drink, too much. A fat lady looks for her dog, which the bride’s dress will remember. We cry, we laugh, we stain a lot. We bleed and we vomit, it’s a celebration of a catastrophic community, shouting, vociferating, perishing. No one talks to each other. We bob and weave, slip, fall and get up again. It’s a whole life in one speechless evening.
After the hectic office life of Open Space in the 2015 season, author and director Mathilda May invites ten mimes, dancers, singers and burlesque actors to her Banquet. A choreography of human disaster, forced to spend an evening together experiencing joys that elude them.

Trailer

The Play

LE BANQUET premiered as a season opener at the Théâtre du Rond Point in October 2018, before embarking on a national tour of France and then returning to Paris at the Théâtre de Paris in January 2020.

The show received two prestigious Molières awards:
– Director in Public Theater
– Female Revelation for actress Ariane Mourier (the Bride).