The actor and author from Agen Benoît Solès was inspired by a novel by Jack London, to better explore the flaws of this immense American novelist. Interview, in the “House of the Wolf”.
The actor Benoît Solès will be back “at home” on Tuesday March 17. By any chance since he finds the boards of Ducouneau, at his home in Agen, and because we will discover him in “La Maison du loup”, his new creation. He is answering our questions.
Another new triumph in perspective in Agen?
Benoit Soles. (laughs) “Yes, I hope so! Ducourneau was sold out when I came to play “Cyrano de Bergerac” in 2015 and “La Machine de Turing” in 2019. For “La Maison du loup” the theater team told me indicated that there were only a few places left. I hope that there will be many of us in this theater that I love so much. It is always very emotional for me to come back to play here.”
Moving, so stress, stage fright?
“Yes, emotion, and this will also be the case for Anne Plantey who will be on stage with us on Tuesday evening, and who is from Prayssas. She cut her teeth with Marianne Valéry. Like me, she will play at home, in front of family, friends, it’s always important and therefore stressful. And then the emotion will come from the play, and from the moment we present it.” La Maison du loup “was presented last year at the Avignon Festival, and we are starting a” pre-tour “, that is to say that 20 cities offer it in preview, before the national tour of 2023. These 20 theaters are therefore partners, they trust us in this adventure which is beginning, and I sincerely thank the director Stéphane Waldt for opening Ducourneau to us, which is my theater of heart.”
What is the story of this creation? Where does this mysterious title come from?
“La Machine de Turing” was a tremendous success, and a new season is scheduled at the Théâtre du Palais Royal in Paris. But I had to move on, a new stage was necessary, the constraint being not to redo “Turing” on the bottom and the form. I wanted to talk regarding adventures, travels, wide open spaces. I am an admirer of Jack London, and in particular of “Martin Eden”, and I discovered by chance one of his unknown novels: “The Wanderer of the Stars”. It is the story of a man from whom we want to extract a confession by imprisoning him in a straitjacket. He survives by self-hypnotizing. It’s quite surprising, and it detonates in the work of Jack London. There is the notion of confinement, but also the power of the mind. I thought of adapting this “Vagabond…” and so I pushed my research, and then I discovered that it was a true story, written to provoke public indignation and therefore a reform of American justice. I worked on this meeting, and the project that London and this prisoner will carry out. I wrote a meeting that takes place at the novelist’s house, in his residence in California and whose name was “La Maison du loup”.
So you will be Jack London?
“No, the role is held by Amaury de Crayencour, who played alongside me in” The Turing Machine “. I play Ed Morrell, who fights to save one of his friends from the death penalty. Charmian , the wife of Jack London (Anne Plantey), also espouses this cause, and invites Morrell to this House of the Wolf, to provoke a start in Jack, the novelist being in full doubt, losing inspiration. a tribute to the great Jack London, but it also evokes the driving role of a woman living alongside a great man. It is also an opportunity to evoke the difficulty of creating, of managing success. We can then wondering who the prisoner is, who is Morrell indirectly coming to save? All this in a three-way face-off.”
“I’m sad and happy”
Joyful, Benoit Solès obviously is, as we approach this reunion with his audience from Agenais. But the feeling is nuanced, because the actor is appalled by the announced death of the Théâtre du Jour and the Pierre-Debauche school. He is indeed the godfather of a promotion of young actors, and this Monday he will undoubtedly come to find them for the last time. “I don’t understand how this company, this place, might close, given the quality of teaching, given the great repertoire offered here for decades. I don’t understand the insane political choices that undermined this work, and ended up bring down the school, protests Benoit Solès (trained at the Balladins and by Marianne Valéry, and not Pierre Debauche). I am the godfather of the first year students, we have forged very strong links between us, and I I will not let them go. I will do everything to help them. I have the feeling of a great waste, but we must remain optimistic, and tell ourselves that the end is always the beginning than something better…” Eternal optimist!