Le destin tragicomique de Tubby et Nottubby

This story is about the encounter of Tubby and Nottubby, two strangers whom destiny surprises one Christmas Eve, on the brink of despair. It is also the story of the extraordinary quest into which they will be propelled, despite themselves, from the banks of the Thames in London, to beyond reality.

Deceived by their illusions but carried by the beauty of their dream, they will meet a skull, survive a storm, fall out, reconcile, sing to ward off fear, and defy death itself, on their way to rebirth… Haunted by the spirit of Shakespeare, bathed in the wonderful madness of Laurel and Hardy, nourished by ancient myths, this show tells of the strength but also the fragility of friendship, love, and dreams, ultimate bulwarks against the cruelty of the world.

” Omar Khayyam. “To be or not to be. To be alive, or not to be. It all begins with these six words, which seem to resonate within all of us since the dawn of time: a shock, between the desire for life and the call of death perceived, when despair strikes, as a possible liberation.

Shakespeare, then, in whose spirit England, where Sophie was born and lived, is so magnificently steeped. Shakespeare, whose language and imagination have traversed and nourished every hour of the creation process.

And then these two theatrical creatures, Tubby and Nottubby, born from an older project that had already brought them together on stage, at the heart of the Peloponnesian War.

Fragile creatures, to whom destiny gave a second life when a theatre director wondered what they would be like in the world as we know it today, urging us to invent their story… Who then are these two strangers – so vulnerable because sincere – in a world where predators reign with a smile?

Who are Tubby and Nottubby, if not that part of ourselves that questions, with anguish, confronted with cynicism elevated to a system: Can one survive if one refuses to be a cutthroat? ” Louis Fortier, Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme, April 2011