Staging for theater for “La voix humaine” by Jean Cocteau

SYNOPSIS 

A woman is traveling on a metro car, alone and looking upset. She hobbles onto the metro seat trying to support herself on the metro’s handles, as if addled by some substance. Her clothes hint at her wealthy social class, although worn inattentively and slovenly. 

The train’s route is unknown, but throughout the journey the protagonist is busy talking on the phone. The spectator ends up listening to the conversation as if they’re sitting on the opposite platform of the metro station. The phone call is interrupted multiple times due to being disconnected, the metro’s loud noises or other people causing disturbances.

The environment around her is almost frozen, becoming cold and impersonal, time is standing still. People are motionless and the protagonist doesn’t pay them any mind, she leads her conversation expressing every emotion, without holding back more than necessary. The audience, even the one in her own car, is forced to witness her desperation with indifference and get involved in her life like an actual voyeur. 

Not many details are known, like who is the person on the other line, why the call takes place there and then, but from some of the woman’s answers it can be inferred she is talking with her ex-partner, probably a closure call where she mentions abandonment, a mistress and her attempted suicide through sleeping pills.To the latter - probably due to her state - she admits in a whisper, as to not be heard by the people around her. 

Little details, often unclear, describe a story of immense suffering caused by a love story whose end she struggles to accept. At the end the protagonist exits the scene through the central doors of the metro, the lights go out and the loud noise of a crash can be heard, ending the play.

This is the vision I wanted to give to ‘La voix humaine’ by Jean Cocteau. Born from a consideration on everyday life, it tells of a dynamic very common since the last couple of decades, when the possibility of talking on the phone moved from private spaces to public ones. 

In public transport we are used to listening in stranger’s conversations of every type. At least once, everyone has had to engage in a conversation outside of their own homes or a more secluded place, careless of the consequences of publicly voicing private matters. Invasion of privacy is so widespread we find it normal, we listen to all sorts with indifference, reaching the point of not even seeing who is around us.

This is not only a story of an audience listening in a private conversation, but the tale of an indifferent society focused on its own individuality. It wants to be a 360° reflection on what we live everyday, regardless if we are personally the ones making the call or the listeners. In both cases we have a responsibility to live on this planet respecting the existence of the other.

STAGING 

The idea was to recreate a metro station, raising the stage with a platform that, level with the proscenium, recreates the wall of the platform; as if the audience were at the other end of the station. The tactile guide on the floor, the neon ceiling lights and the wall of the tunnel recreate the setting perfectly, giving the scene the characteristic look of a metro station.

The car is sectioned by length and is parallel to the audience. On the sides, two backdrops equipped with reflective panels mirror the walls and the metro car creating an optical illusion of infinity, as if the tunnel and the train keep going to the left and to the right. 

Some white mannequins are present in the car, as passengers: some standing, some sitting or resting on the metro walls. They represent the distortion of the protagonist’s reality, they stay silent and still as if they didn’t exist, but they are present and listening.

The green glow of the neon lights create an impersonal and spectral atmosphere. The walls, covered in cold white tiles, reflect the green light. The sound of the coming and going of the trains mixing with the constant buzzing of the neon lights contributes to the cold and uncomfortable atmosphere.

In this environment human interaction is almost nonexistent; a feeling of coldness, as much physical as emotional, envelops the space, contributing to the air of discomfort and disorientation.