Spectacle "Juste pour rire”

“Juste pour rire” / “Just for laughs”

1- “La lettre d’amour” de Karl Valentin (James Carter)

A man sits finishing his letter to his faraway “lover” complaining that she never writes to him as she promised she would.

2- “Mr Badin” de George Courteline (Loris Pergod & Tim Azzopardi)

Mr Badin’s boss invites him into his office to confront him about his absence from work for weeks at time,  knowing that he goes to drink in a nearby bar all the time.

Mr Badin makes his usual excuse of a death in the family. His boss points out that it's one of on many in a few weeks including weddings and baptisms too.

His boss gives him two choices, he resigns or he comes to work every day. The boss, convinced he can get Mr badin to resign starts signing the necessary paperwork.  Mr Badin now desperate tries both seduction and tears to persuade his boss how hard his life is. Eventually the boss thinks that Mr Badin is too upset to do anything but resign and asks him to sign his resignation letter. Instead Mr Badin asks for a raise.

3- “Vivons heureux” de Jean Paul Alègre (Frances Priest & Valeria Luciani)

A “great” actress has a last minute change of acting partner, who turns out to be a drama student with no idea of what is expected of her. The student thinks she has just come to watch the great actress at work. Completely misunderstanding that she is supposed to be acting with her partner, the student joins the audience to watch the now “one woman show”, only to be highly critical of the poor performance of the “great” actress.

4- “L’affaire se complique” de Jean Tardieu - (Tim Azzopardi)

This “poem” is very short, surreal and impossible to describe.

5- “Gros chagrin” de George Courteline (Saki Kunimoto & Frances Priest)

Two society ladies who “lunch”, Gabrielle and Caroline: Gabrielle  arrives at Caroline’s house distraught because her husband Fernand is cheating on her. Caroline is at her wits end because she has had to let go of her maid (“bonne”) who she has caught stealing. Gabrielle  claims to have found a love letter in Fernand pocket from Rose Mouseron a singer/dancer. Caroline want to hear all the gossip and encourages her friend Gabrielle  to tell all - and Gabrielle  loves the attention claiming to be suicidal but quickly relents when she remembers that she has a society ball to go to with Fernand and wants Caroline to teach her some dance moves.

6- “Le gora” de George Courteline (Foteini Manolaraki& Tim Azzopardi)

A photographer GUSTAVE and his lover BOBÉCHOTTE have an impromptu photo shoot. While taking photos BOBÉCHOTTE  tells Gustave that the concierge has given her a “Un Gora”, which Gustave does not understand  as she means an “Un--Angora” - a cat. Gustave corrects her pronunciation. But as she continues to describe the cat she keeps making small mistakes which Gustave keeps correcting. While Boéchotte goes along with Gustave pedantry for a while, eventually she gets annoyed and we all know hell hath no fury like a woman who has her grammar corrected!

7- “Le dromadaire mécontent” de Jacques Prévert (Loris Pergod)

A young dromedary (camel one hump) tells us the story  of how he went to a conference about camels and dromedaries and how ridiculous it was,

8- “L’ours” de Anton Tchekhov (Saki Kunimoto & James Carter)

Elena Popova is a grieving widow grieving on the seven-month anniversary of her husband's death.  A retired army man, Grigory Stepanovitch Smirnov arrives and wishes to see Elena Popova. Smirnov explains to her that her late husband owes him a sum of 1,200 roubles. Because he is a landowner, Smirnov explains that he needs the sum paid to him on that same day to pay for the mortgage of a house due the next day. Popova explains that she has no money with her and that she will settle her husband's debts when her steward arrives the day after tomorrow. Smirnov gets angered by her refusal to pay him back and mocks the supposed 'mourning' of her husband.  

Smirnov decides that he will not leave until his debts are paid off, even if that means waiting until the day after tomorrow. He and Popova get into another argument when he starts yelling at the footman to bring him kvass to drink. During this argument Popova insults Smirnov by calling him a bear, a monster!"

Smirnov, insulted, calls for a duel, not caring that Elena is a woman. Elena , in turn, enthusiastically agrees and goes off to get a pair of guns her husband owned. Meanwhile, Smirnov says to himself how impressed he is by Popova's audacity and slowly realizes that he has actually fallen in love with her and her dimpled cheeks. When Elena returns with the pistols, Smirnov makes his love confession…. And … dot dot dot