Les Luttes intestines

In Les Luttes intestines (Internal Wars), Adrien Barazzone stages a faecal revolution.   This Genevan director, 34 years old, was intrigued to learn that our gut contains billions of bacteria called intestinal flora. He also learned that this flora plays an important role in what we think are carefully weighed decisions. So he serves up a mischievous and in-your-face spectacle that pulls no punches. It is funny, respectfully disrespectful and it turns the unities of drama upside down - the storm in the first part is followed by extended doldrums in the second. The production’s chief merit is that it is as open-minded as the subject it deals with.

What do we see in these Wars? A TV studio topped by a huge turd, beneath which researchers discuss the complexities of our guts. Among the guests, a brave artist agrees to a faecal transplant via her nostrils. Yes, you read it correctly: the actress ingests faeces (blended into a smoothie) through her nose, in order to discover otherness or to gain a novel experience by means of a rarely used pathway. Opposite her, a gastroenterologist rages about a medical intervention being subverted in this way, whilst the other actors share their insights into the viscera. Centre stage, a crazy presenter turns this verbal ping-pong into insane pyrotechnics. Melanie Foulon, David Gobet, Marion Duval, Safi Martin Yé and Marius Schaffter all excel in this organised madness.

We're used to Adrien Barazzone making us laugh. He embarked on his career at the Théâtre du Loup, a Genevan venue that has carved out a reputation for its lively, cheeky and musical productions, and this young director has a penchant for social satire and mockery. In 2014 he produced “Sauna”, in which environmental experts meet at a conference and start to hate nature because they get lost in the forest. He then joined up with two acting colleagues who, like him, were graduates of Switzerland’s French-speaking Drama School (the Haute Ecole de Théâtre de Suisse Romande) to devise “Can you hear us?,” a ramshackle sort of riff on rock stars who died at the age of 27. Time and again he combines superb acting with an acute sense of the absurd. Adrien Barazzone? He gives us the art of unsettling truth.

(Marie Pierre Genecand)

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  Concept and direction
  Adrien Barazzone

  With
  Mélanie Foulon, David Gobet, Esperanza López, Safi Martin Yé, Marius Schaffter

  Direction Assistance
  Barbara Schlittler

  Stage design
  Gregory Brunisholz, Anaïde Davoudlarian

  Costumes
  Maria Muscalu

  Sound
  Jérémie Conne

  Light
  Benoît Théron

  Administration
  Christèle Fürbringer

  Production
  L’Homme de dos

  Coproduction
  Théâtre du Loup

  Surtitles (german)
  Dóra Kapusta

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