The great love story of the writer Albert Camus and his lover Maria Casarès is told in the play with nostalgia and finesse by the best actors of the TNM I am writing to you in the middle of a beautiful storm.
• Also read: I am writing to you in the midst of a beautiful storm: Steve Gagnon’s double challenge
The actress of Spanish origin, brilliantly played by Anne Dorval, characterized this relationship, which began in 1944 and ended tragically in 1960, as “an encounter between bodies and words”.
This description fits perfectly in this work devised by the playwright Dany Boudreault, who inserts the mouthparts of the written correspondence of these two lovers.
In this production by Maxime Carbonneau, Camus’ flame returns to their common destiny. Often separated by their respective professions and the marital status of the married and child-loving author, the two lovers exchanged numerous letters that come to life before our eyes in a thoroughly bourgeois literary language.
Passion, the need for others and brotherhood are expressed so beautifully by Steve Gagnon and Anne Dorval. The latter has kept her stage fright in check, she who has climbed the boards of a theater for the first time in twelve years. In particular, she effortlessly transitions from sadness to clarity to portray a character with nuance.
Cold War and Intelligence
Although this exhibition takes up certain themes that shaped the post-war period, such as Soviet Communism, the Algerian War, and existentialism, Camus’ ideas and positions are relatively little discussed. While it does cover his falling out with Jean-Paul Sartre, this show mostly gives way to the shared feelings of the two lovebirds.
All these emotions that develop over time are richly accentuated by the original music by Antoine Bédard as well as an enchanting sound envelope like the thunderstorm raging in the distance.
The show ends on a crescendo with Camus’ memorable speech in Stockholm when he received his Nobel Peace Prize, the accident that took his life (well done for the visual effect!) and the scars left by that tragedy. The poignant finale mixes the agony caused by the evaporating of a unique love with the melancholy of having lived it. A degree worthy of this beautiful union.
I am writing to you in the middle of a beautiful storm ★★★★
- Directed by Maxime Carbonneau
- With Anne Dorval and Steve Gagnon. On view at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde until February 19th