Jules and Marcel, a mythical play at the Festival Off

“This show is the story of the eternal friendship between my grandfather, Marcel Pagnol and Raimu, his friend and favorite actor”. This is how Nicolas Pagnol, the director of “Jules et Marcel” defines this excellent and unmissable show at the Festival Off d’Avignonscheduled from July 6 to 29 at 12:25 pm at Théâtre Le Petit Chien.

The pitch

It all started in 1929 when a certain Marcel Pagnol, a young provincial author who was still unknown, timidly knocked on the door of the dressing room of a certain Jules Muraire, alias “Raimu”, a rising star of the French comic theater scene, to offer him the manuscript of a certain play entitled “Marius”…

Jules and Marcel are brought back to life through their correspondence found in the family archives. Their joyfully ferocious epistolary joust gives the public the opportunity to rediscover these two giants from a more human angle.

It is also an opportunity to listen to Marcel Pagnol, who rarely spoke, preferring, in his own words, to “make others speak”.
The presence of Nicolas Pagnol, who directs the show, obviously intensifies the emotion conveyed by the show and gives it a very special flavor.
Laughter, arguments and emotion are on the program!

The actors

Frédéric Achard is Jules Raimu, this talented actor, member of the mythical group Quartiers NordsWorking hand in hand with Nicolas Pagnol, he was one of the creators of the “Randonnées théâtrales” (theatre walks ) which attract an ever-increasing number of spectators to the works of Marcel Pagnol performed in the natural setting of the hills.

Christian Guérin plays Marcel Pagnol, this tightrope walker of expression is in turn a theater teacher, a director, an author, an actor, a juggler, a clown, and a master practitioner in NLP. His dream: that his art be round so that he can go around it several times, or paint it red and put it on the end of his nose.

Gilles Azzopardi is the Narrator, with his theater company, Les Spécimens, he mounts and performs his own plays and thus accumulates the hats of playwright, actor and director, but also theater teacher.

The magic of the theater vibrates particularly in this play which allows the public to attend the meeting of these two outstanding characters of the history of the cinema. Jules and Marcel, a moving, authentic and inevitably jubilant play… in the image of the people of the South!
A production of the Cie Dans la cour des Grands in co-direction with the Chien qui Fume, scene of Avignon.

Théâtre Le Petit Chien 76 rue Guillaume Puy 84000 Avignon
6 to 29 July at 12:25 pm
No show on 11, 18 and 25 July
Reservation : 04.84.51.07.48