Dans le couloir

Once upon a time, there was a couple in their eighties who, overnight, saw their son—who was no longer a young man—return home after they had lost touch with him. He mysteriously locks himself in his old childhood bedroom, without saying a word about why he’s come back home. “Nothing is funnier than misfortune, provided it’s shared fairly,” Jean-Claude Grumberg asserts mischievously. That’s what comes to mind as we watch Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Christine Murillo bring to life the little sorrows, memories, and long-standing quarrels of the married couple they portray so masterfully.

In the Hallway resonates the tragicomedy of an aging couple whose lives are unraveling as they reflect on the meaning—and meaninglessness—of existence. A woman and a man open the doors to their private lives. Behind the closed door of his bedroom, their son’s silence becomes a burden. What should they do? Leave him alone? Pamper him like a child? The father’s grumpy temperament clashes with the mother’s affectionate indulgence. And life goes on, rich with contradictions, oscillating between gravity and irony. In a finely crafted production directed by Charles Tordjman, the play unfolds all its subtle nuances and moving possibilities.