Horrible parents

Paris is the home of love, art and family tragicomedies heightened to the point of madness - especially when the following story comes from the mind of fever dream specialist Jean Cocteau.

Yvonne is a suicidal mother obsessed with her one-eyed son. Michel is a boy unable to grow up, who has the misfortune to fall in love with a young girl while having such a mother - and between them is Georges, the father who, in his great loneliness, has managed to fall in love with the same mysterious mistress. It is in this madness, full of painful secrets, that the kind and porous aunt Léonie - once, some twenty-three years ago, the father's fiancée - tries to put things right.

The five-actor play, stretched to the limit, is a masterclass in emotional blackmail, marital secrecy and cold war tactics within love. Of course, we are no strangers to such family clashes. Directed by József Kelemen, the company's principal director, we get to see how the French do it on a world stage.

Length of the performance: 90 minutes