After the resounding j’accuse! , that is Jean-Claude Dreyfus to defend Émile Zola. The actor was increasingly discreet in recent years. It is found happily on a small houseboat: The Red Nose, a fief of the comedian Gérald Dahan, moored quai de la Marne (Paris, XIXe). Francis Lalanne plays also with his yellow jacket, intermittently. That is to say, the beautiful incongruity of the place.

Book your tickets for The Flood the theatre in The Red Nose on Ticketac

The old cabarettiste seat at the bottom of a room, which would necessarily be any length, beside a guitarist electric. On his desk, The Flood , a new cold of Zola, is wide open. Inspired by a fact-various dating from 1875, it tale the fate of the family Roubieu, rich farmers, spinning wool, the perfect happiness “in the upstream of the river Garonne”. The grand-father, the narrator, welcomes his children, his grandchildren, his sons-in-law and small son-in-law. His crops are so good that he believes he is blessed. Alas, it would have been too good for the author of Germinal .

A terrible flood is coming. The cattle drowned. The Garonne rises, rises, up to the roof of the houses. It must be said that Emile Zola has somehow loaded the boat. Jean-Claude Dreyfus, ensconced in his armchair, groaning into gasps and sighs. He rides the silence like the “R”. The Roubieu found refuge on the roof. The belly tense, the language output, the actor is their savings no misery. The agony is slow, the story is not cheerful. The jolts of guitar accompany the last moments of life.

Jean-Claude Dreyfus, who before becoming an actor was a time “Emma von Scratch” at the cabaret transformist the Great Eugene, does not bother the exemplarity of its history. The news does not really. “It is not very gay”, concedes he. But this is so well said. One foot on the ground with a smile, carrying a beautiful moment of theatre.

● “The Flood” at the theatre The Red Nose. Mondays at 20: 30. Up to 31 December. BOOK >
” Follow all the info in the Figaro culture on Facebook and Twitter.