2023-10-12 11:11:54
Director Sandra Gaudin adapts the text “A Woman of Mystery” by American director John Cassavetes for the theater. The story of a strong and free woman played on stage by actress Marthe Keller. To see at the Octagon of Pully (VD) this Thursday and Friday.
The famous Swiss actress Marthe Keller and the French-speaking director Sandra Gaudin met through mutual friends. The flow flows and the desire to set up a project together is felt very quickly.
For the one who played with the greatest – Brando, Trintignant, Mastroianni, Al Pacino – and was directed by sacred monsters from Sydney Pollack to Billy Wilder, Sandra Gaudin wanted a story in the image of the cinema star, that of a free woman. She chose “A Woman of Mystery”, a text by American director John Cassavetes, written for her muse Gena Rowland.
A play which was only performed for two weeks in Los Angeles in 1987 and which was never published. The director planned to make a film regarding it, but illness took him away in 1989 before he might bring the project to fruition.
Investigation and reconstruction work
Of this work, only fragments remain. Sandra Gaudin is investigating to reconstruct its content. She contacted the director’s biographer who told her the genesis of the work, collected the testimony of a few people who had attended one of the performances of “A Woman of Mystery”, read the review in the Times at the time. She composes a story around this text and carves out a tailor-made role for Marthe Keller. Little by little “Who Plays Who” is taking shape.
It was both the idea of working with Sandra Gaudin and that of playing a woman in love with freedom – “my favorite subject”, specifies Marthe Keller on RTS – which appealed to the 78-year-old actress. The only major difficulty in putting on the piece: finding enough time in your very busy schedule.
In search of authenticity
For the main character of “Who Plays Who” that she plays on the Octagon stage in Pully, freedom requires a refusal of all influence, of all labels and even of all identity. Thus the piece unfolds the thread of the life of a woman in search of authenticity. On her way, she meets a man who might be Colombo, a woman who says she is her daughter, musicians, a clairvoyant…
>> To see, interview with director Sandra Gaudin and actress Marthe Keller regarding the play “Who Plays Who”:
Interview with director Sandra Gaudin and actress Marthe Keller, on the occasion of the release of “Who plays who – the mystery woman”. / 12:45 p.m. / 6 min. / Tuesday at 12:45
With a voice-over, a soundtrack and video projections, “Who Plays Who” is a spectacle that is both cinematic and aesthetic, but above all, it is a strong and disturbing work.
Antenna subject and comments collected by Julie Evard
Adaptation web: aq
“Who Plays Who” by Sandra Gaudin, Octagone de Pully, October 12 and 13; then Nuithonie in Fribourg, from November 16 to 19, 2023 and L’Oriental in Vevey, from March 27 to 29, 2024.
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