Theater: “Le Facteur Cheval or the dream of a madman” will be played in Wavre before Avignon
Alain Leempoel, how did this Postman Cheval story come into your hands?
It was Pierre Pigeolet, with whom I was on tour at the time, who came with the novel by Nadine Monfils and I handed it over, telling myself that he dreamed of performing this magnificent text. I was seduced too and I said okay. The difficulty, however, was to transform this text for the stage and it was Nadine Monfils herself who took care of it.
How are you going to save the character from the risk of the monotony of a monologue?
I decided to put a visual artist on stage alongside the actor. It needed the head and the legs. Because the Horse factor is in action. He is in a flood of words because he cries out his grief and all that he has suffered during his life, but he is also and above all someone who acts. He is a hard worker to the point of being called crazy by an entire village who sees him building a palace in lime and cement with a wheelbarrow and a shovel. It is unheard. This quasi-illiterate man turned out to be an outstanding creator. His palace has been listed and is recognized as a masterpiece of naïve art.
What is Nadine Monfils basing herself on to write this story? Did postman Cheval leave any writings?
No, not him, but many witnesses have left documents that were collected in the 1950s and 1960s, when his “Ideal Palace” was purchased by the state. Nadine also added a few fictional elements such as the fact that he would have made a friend, a painter who was a little basic and as asocial as him, and that the latter will give him ideas…
If this character was a loner, even an antisocial, how do you make him likeable?
He was a little autistic and asocial, probably very shy, but he is above all a terribly human being. He reveals himself here with his flaws, and that’s what makes him close to all of us.
Wavre is a bit of a warm-up. You will then play in Avignon?
Four evenings are held in Wavre, in the park of the Ermitage castle. Then, we will play in Avignon, from July 7 to 30, every morning at 11 a.m., in the gardens of the Théâtre des Halles.
Have you ever seen this famous “Ideal Palace”?
Me yes, but not Pierre Pigeolet. We were supposed to go and play in Hauterives in June, but it was postponed to September. The play could become an annual event there. It would make sense.
“Le Facteur Cheval or the dream of a madman”, in Wavre, in the park of the Ermitage castle, on 23 and 24/6 at 7.30 p.m. and on 25 and 26/6 at 5.30 p.m. Free admission, at the hat.