This burlesque gem tells the improbable story of one Sémione, an unemployed man living off his wife and mother-in-law in a communal apartment. Rising in the dead of night, seized by a sudden craving for sausage, his life takes a thoroughly unexpected turn: a chain of misunderstandings leads those around him to believe he intends to take his own life. The neighbour called to his aid confirms the suspicion, mistaking the sausage Sémione is hiding in his jacket for a pistol.

The rumour spreads. A man of letters requests an audience in his modest apartment, swiftly followed by a priest, a butcher, a romantic admirer — each imploring him to die for their cause. The socially marginalised young man is enormously flattered by the sudden attention.

For the sociétaire Stéphane Varupenne, "few plays combine, as this one does, comic power, political depth and existential questioning." He anchors the farce in the era of its author, Nikolai Erdman, a Russian writer censored and forced into exile in 1933 under Stalin. His staging, performed with live musicians, holds together social reflection and vaudevillian mechanics: the laughter it generates carries within it an extraordinary life force — a bulwark against despair.
 

Production created at Salle Richelieu on October 11, 2024

Casting in progress