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by Francis Veber, directed by Guy Mignault

Théâtre français de Toronto, Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs, Toronto

May 13-29, 2016

Kopel: “Chacun a son jardin secret”

The Théâtre français de Toronto concludes its 2015/16 in uproarious style with the comedy Le Placard (The Closet) by Francis Veber.  Like Veber’s previous plays seen at the TfT, L’Emmerdeur in 2012 and Le Dîner des cons in 2009, Le Placard is directed by Guy Mignault and has as its central character Veber’s greatest creation, the dullest of all Frenchmen, François Pignon, played as before by the inimitable Pierre Simpson.  The comedy is hilarious, the action is brisk, the entire cast is top-notch and Simpson is absolutely wonderful.

For those who have become fans of the loveable François Pignon, Le Placard is a must-see because in this play we learn much more about Pignon’s life than in the other two plays.  We discover that Pignon is an accountant in a condom factory.  It is the recession and like other companies, the factory will be downsizing and Pignon overhears two higher-ups, Guillaume (Thomas Gallezot) and personnel manager Santini (Christian Laurin) state that Pignon is on the list.  For Pignon this is the last straw in his unhappy life.  His wife, whom he still loves, left him two years ago and his 15-year-old son refuses to see him.  With the loss of his job, he feels he has nothing and so prepares to commit suicide by jumping out his apartment window.

Fortunately, his new neighbour, an elderly man named Belone (René Lemieux), stops Pignon and becomes his confidant.  Belone used to be a company psychologist and tells Pignon that the way to prevent his firing is to come out to his coworkers as gay.  Pignon, who is straight, is confused.  Belone explains that if it were discovered that a company making condoms, a high percentage of which would be used by gay men, has fired a gay employee, it would cause backlash against the company by gay groups.

Belone sends the company a faked photo of Pignon in full leather regalia in a compromising position.  The rumour spreads throughout the factory, most finding it unbelievable that such a dull person could have such a secret life.  The brilliant aspect of Belone’s plan, and of Veber’s plot, is that Pignon need do absolutely nothing for the ruse to succeed.  Pignon is too unimaginative to act, therefore he does not have “to act gay” which would have been the death of the play.  Instead, the comedy derives from how people’s reactions to Pignon change completely.  One colleague Ariane (Bahareh Yanaghi), even starts noticing giveaway habits that prove Pignon is gay that she had ignored before.  Basically, Veber provides us a perfect example of how straight society constructs homosexuality from its own biases. 

Kopel (Robert Godin), the company director gives Pignon back his job immediately, but Pignon being a dull straight guy whom everyone thinks is openly gay starts to cause its own set of complications.

Francis Veber is not only a playwright but also a director and screenwriter.  Unlike L’Emmerdeur and Le Dîner des cons which were first written as plays and then made into films, Le Placard originated first as the screenplay for a movie in 2001 and was later adapted by Veber as a stage play in 2014.  The play’s origins are apparent its use of a large number of very short scenes that may work well on film but feel disjointed on stage.  Director Guy Mignault has done his best to make the action flow smoothly and rapidly from scene to scene.  Alain Richer’s clever two-level set is a help as are his rapid lighting changes.  Nevertheless, we do wonder whether Veber could have rethought his screenplay a bit more to eliminate changes of scene where sometimes only a few words are spoken.

Pierre Simpson is just as delightful as Pignon as he was in Le Dîner des cons and L’Emmerdeur.  One could say he is even more delightful because in Le Placard we get to know Pignon so much better.  How does Simpson make a man interesting whom everyone agrees is dull, including himself?  Pignon may be dull, but Simpson emphasizes that he also an innocent.  Pignon may be a grown man but he looks at the world as if he were still a little boy and is still surprised by all the bad things that happen in it.  Pignon looks at the world as an outsider and Simpson conveys, primarily through his expressive face both the wish that Pignon has to belong and the melancholy that he never will be accepted.  Simpson gives a performance to cherish and any lover of theatre, French-speaking or not, should make sure to see him in a role that he has made his own.

Pignon’s primary nemesis at work is Félix Santini.  Christian Laurin comes on so strong as Santini making him a hulking, blustering brute that you think has left nowhere for his character to go.  That turns out to be false in the most comic way possible.  Santini has the widest emotional arc of any of the characters and Laurin details the many stages of his evolution perfectly.

Throughout the action René Lemieux’s Belone provides Pignon with both the reassurance and imagination that he lacks.  Lemieux makes Belone a wonderfully benign presence with an impish sense of humour, and we feel that as long as Pignon has Belone as his confidante everything will turn out well.

Bahareh Yanaghi as Ariane and Tara Nicodemo as Mlle Bertrand are both excellent as Pignon’s fellow accountants.  They present contrasting views of their simple coworker – Ariane ready to believe every negative rumour while Bertrand is more forgiving and is the first to doubt that the rumours are true.  Yanaghi invests Ariane with malicious energy, yet her greatest scene is silent when she shows Ariane’s expression change completely from surprise to shame and regret when she overhears a conversation that overturns her negative point of view.  Nicodemo’s Mlle Bertrand turns out to be not unlike Pignon.  Nicodemo conveys the shyness and loneliness of Mlle Bertrand’s life and her affection for Pignon even before we hear her speak of them.        

In Kopel, Robert Godin has the unusual chance to play a buffoon with a decidedly slimy side to his personality and he gives a finely detailed performance as usual.  As Guillaume, Thomas Gallezot imbues his characters with the energy of a mischief maker when he schemes with Mlle Bertrand to trick Santini out of his aggressiveness. 

Le Placard marks the final play that Guy Mignault directs at the end of his 19 years as the Artistic Director of TfT.  The production is a fitting end to this phase of Mignault’s career since it reflects so well the warmth, good humour and attention to quality that have characterized his time in this position.  We wish Mignault well in his retirement but also want to make sure he knows how much Toronto has benefitted from his making TfT such a welcoming and vital part of Toronto’s theatre scene.  Merci mille fois!  

                

Performed in French with English surtiles May 18, 25, 27, 28 & 29.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive. 

Photos: (from top) Pierre Simson and Christian Laurin; Pierre Simpson, Christian Laurin, Thomas Gallezot and Tara Nicodemo. ©2016 Marc Lemyre.

For tickets, visit http://theatrefrancais.com.