Review

A Parisian actor on a downward slide finds work in a little provincial theatre. He is greeted by the theatre lessee and his wife, who obviously don't have much experience on stage. Passion is not enough and the rehearsals seem to be mission impossible. Especially with a first night in five days… The only one who keeps up his enthusiasm despite everything is André, the prompter… An ode to the theatre lovers, adapted from a hilarious play which received five French theatre Molière Awards.

Adapted from a successful winning play, André le Magnifique is a real treat showing the uproarious rehearsals of a very unlikely play. The intertwined idiosyncrasies of the characters are brilliantly staged, from André the town gardener turned prompter who entertains a very peculiar relationship with a Virgo statue, to the school teacher turned producer whose vacillations are incessantly enhanced by his feather-brained wife/actress and her pretentious, self-deluding partner.

This lighthearted shambles gives rise to a fast-paced, fun-packed spectacle which had the Paris audience in the aisles. The directors' s provincial approach bears family ties with the work of the Deschiens, Jerome Deschamps's famous theatrical company, and such films as Christian Philibert's successful Les Quatre Saisons d'Espigoule. It will certainly win the public's heart.

Robin GATTO