Review-Le Diner de Cons-HK Theatre Association
2-12-12
By: Meaghan McGurgan
Bonjour. Je m'apelle Meaghan. Je suis désolé. Mon français est terrible. Malgré cela, j'adore le théâtre du français. Donc, je voulais voir Le Dîner de Cons. Je ne crois pas que le langage doit être obstacle à voir un art. (FYI, j'ai vérifié cette orthographique dans Google Translate.)
Basically, what I've just said is that my French is pretty terrible. I was openly mocked in Paris for my pronunciation. But despite that I love French theatre and enjoy seeing theatre in other languages. I'm a firm believer that good art translates any barriers. Le Diner de Cons was playing this weekend at the Sheung Wan Civic Center and I was hearing fabulous things about it. It sold out a month before the show was set to play. The Director, Emilie Guillot has a stellar reputation in town with the French community for creating wonderful pieces of theatre. I've seen her work before and was excited to see her take on "The Dinner Game" or "Dinner for Schmucks" (as it's translated into English).
The basic premise of the script is that Pierre is a very well to do man who is rather bored with his perfect life. He has a beautiful wife, is successful and wealthy. To entertain himself and his friends he goes to a weekly dinner where they bring along an "idiot" to make fun of behind his back. Whoever brings the biggest idiot is the winner. Pierre believes he would have been the Champion this week had he not hurt his back. His "idiot" is Pignon, a tax man who builds match stick models in his spare time and loves telling you all the details about it.
Overall, I enjoyed Guillot's Direction of Le Diner de Cons. She made good use of the space in her blocking and the scenery looked elegant. I especially enjoyed Act 2 as I felt the pacing was much stronger especially when Cheval came onto the scene. He had excellent comedic timing. The ending moment between Pierre and Pignon was also especially well done.
Act 1 felt a little slow at times as actors seemed to be pausing for laughs that never came. I enjoyed the entrances and exits for the play as the Director had actors coming in from all directions including the audience making it a very interesting play to watch. Theirry Estimbre stole the show as Pignon. His physicalization had classic French clown all over it and he was absolutely charming as the "idiot". I also really enjoyed Bertrand Leduby as Cheval.
I didn't particularily care for the timing of the surtitles in this production. I appreciated that they had taken the time to make English surtitles for this show but often times the timing of them would reveal plot points before they happened on stage. The Director did all the translations herself which is to be commended but there were some very funny typos in them that the English speakers couldn't help but giggle at. If you were a person who spoke zero French I don't know if you would have enjoyed Le Diner de Cons but I don't think that's who the company's audience is.
The 90% French audience loved the show. They were roaring with laughter in certain areas and gave an encore for the bow. Very rarely does a matinee of a Saturday show sell out so quickly amongst the community theatre productions. So, obviously there is huge demand in the French theatre scene which HK Theatre Association is there to fill. As a side note, the program and graphic design for this show were incredibly well done. I especially loved the poster design.
Le Diner de Cons has sold out! For more information please click here.
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