After coming to Tarbes with "The Ghost of Shakespeare," you're back with "My Friend Roger." It's another one-man show.
This is my ninth one-man show. It's the format I feel most comfortable with on stage. You can hear and feel the audience's reaction. The cats express their pleasure by purring. You can also hear the audience smiling. Even as a child, when I sang in a choir, I felt like everyone was watching me. But this is my last one-man show. I also want to do other things, to write, and I can't manage that when I'm performing. Being alone on stage requires taking the time to prepare, to relax. You have to be in complete control of yourself to be alone in front of an audience!
What was your first emotional experience in the theater?
It was in 1960, in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes in Avignon. Jean Vilar presented Sophocles' Antigone there. A few years later, he directed me in The Miser.
Who is "my friend Roger"?
He's someone who doesn't think he's more or less than he is. The opposite of a man of power! He's vulnerable and strong at the same time. He's like Sganarelle in Molière's Don Juan. He tries to go all the way, but it doesn't work out. Above all, it's a story of friendship. It can be a friend, a female friend, it's not a question of gender. The kind of person who would step in front of you to help you avoid a stray bullet and say, "There's Roger!"
