Theatre - Minetti

New Year’s Eve in Ostend. An elderly actor enters a hotel lobby. Long forgotten by everyone, he is waiting for one last role. With his pitch-black humour, Thomas Bernhard explores time, memory and ghosts. By giving pride of place to music and opera singing, Matthieu Cruciani elevates this monumental monologue to new heights.


Outside, a snowstorm rages. Inside, an idle extra and a doorman watch a middle-aged lady, languishing on a sofa, downing glass after glass of champagne. Every so often, feverish revellers burst out of the lift to celebrate the New Year. Into this timeless setting steps Minetti. The old man claims to be a famous actor who hasn’t performed for thirty years. He also claims to have an appointment at this hotel with a theatre director who wants to offer him one last role: that of King Lear. So he waits. Portrayed by the charismatic Josse De Pauw, a leading Belgian film and theatre actor, Minetti begins to tell his never-ending story in a deluge of words. It is like the cry of distress and indignation from an ageing, lonely man who continues to believe in art and its high standards whilst the whole world turns its back on it. To engage with him, Matthieu Cruciani draws on the music of Schubert and Chopin, Scriabin and Ravel, blending piano and operatic singing.