Patrick Timsit on stage DR

Practical information

FIAF, Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street,

Wednesday January 29 at 7:30 pm

Thursday January 30 at 7:30 pm

“Sometimes people come to the show because they saw my name, thinking that they are going to laugh … What is great is that they are surprised, discover the emotion, even cry sometimes, but they tell me after they love it ”. With "My Mother's Book", taken from Albert Cohen's book, Patrick Timsit chose a register that is definitely not that of his one man shows. He is this week in New York for two exceptional performances at the FIAF (January 29 and 30).

After nearly 3 years of touring France – and of critical success and audience – he saw his last performances (he will be in Los Angeles after New York on January 31 and February 1) before moving on. In the meantime, the actor is enjoying a few days with his family in New York. He answered our questions between shopping and a game of bowling “Who will of course the highlight of this trip ”, he said smiling. The comic is never far away, but “Le Livre de ma mère” is not the first “dramatic” show he plays (there was “Unknown at this address” with Thierry Lhermitte or “The last days by Stephen Zweig ”with Elsa Zylberstein at the theater, or“ Le Cousin ”, especially at the cinema). "In all cases, he said, I don't tell myself ‘I have to do a drama. " It’s always the project that decides. Does the text, the play, the subject interest me? ” In this case, the project is 30 years old. Timsit discovered Albert Cohen’s book in a theater workshop. “I had played scenes from it, which I remembered, like the famous first sentence: ‘Each man is alone and all do not care about all and our pains are a desert island’ ”.

He expected, he said, maturity to be able to play this text; actor maturity, "To dare to do nothing, let the emotion play without falling into pathos". Critics in France have praised Patrick Timsit's acting performance, and sobriety precisely, in the face of a text so strong in emotion. Sentences like: “Son of mothers still alive, remember that your mothers are deadly … I would not have written all of this in vain if one of you tonight after listening to my death song is sweeter with his mother … " After that, says Patrick Timsit, “in general, those who are lucky enough to still have it, call their mother when they leave the show … "

The question was obvious: “How did your mother react to you?” "I had forbidden him to come to the Paris premiere, replies the actor. It would have bothered me to know there. But she still came in secret. She was obviously overwhelmed with emotion. " Cohen’s text is not only a tribute to the mother, it is also – above all – a long outrage at death. "By designing it, with director Dominique Pitoiset, we realized that it was in fact a spectacle of mourning". To the gravity of the subject, the only possible bias was “That of simplicity. I'm not trying to make you cry, just to bring to life a magnificent text ”.

If the one-man-show shows are necessarily partially autobiographical, “you have to have codes to understand it; in this show it’s different: the subject is such that we necessarily indulge. Our choice of staging allows for confession. And finally, there is little opportunity to indulge in a modest way! ”.

At the FIAF, Wednesday January 29 and Thursday January 30. The performance will be followed by a meet and greet with Patrick Timsit on Wednesday and a Q&A on Thursday.

Tickets here

Practical information

FIAF, Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street,

Wednesday January 29 at 7:30 pm

Thursday January 30 at 7:30 pm

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here