Review: COUTEAU… SEPT FACONS ORIGINALES

Last night, I went to La Nouvelle Scene on King Edward to watch the play Couteau…SEPT FACONS ORIGINALES DE TUER QUELQU’UN AVEC.

This is another forray into the theatrical arts wish I thoroughly enjoy. I like going to see people act in front of me…if I may say so, it may even be better than watching a movie. I prefer the smaller productions than the massive ones where you are a kilometer away from the stage.

Let’s be honest. My first language is not French. I am not perfectly bilingual. I think I’m above average. So how is watching a French play?

Not bad. I get the gist of much of the play usually (with the help of watching actions also). Sometimes they go off on monologues with lingo I don’t understand…it’s understandable as not many people speak the language they learn in school. Take the difference between yes/yeah and oui/ouai.

Anyhow, the play was pretty good. Actually, I personally thought it was quite disturbing. It revolved around a simple premise…a knife (couteau). The knife was shown in many different ways, whether it be in killing someone, shaving, cutting St. Hubert chicken (no joke!), or (my personal fave) being advertised on an informercial (these knives can cut through anything!).

The play revolved around a psychologist analyzing a patient who was saddened because he threw away a fisherman’s knife into the water when he was a child, and that this knife was the sole thing that the fisherman loved. He ruined the fisherman’s life. A dialogue would take place between the psychologist and the patient, and then the play would switch over to a different skit involving a knife…whether it be a murder, or someone shaving, etc.

The more disturbing scene was when the knife is used in a very violent fashion and you were left in shock, and then it changes the scene to the most satirical use of a knife I’ve ever seen – the infomercial; where the knife does not become some object of violence, but a wonder tool which can bring you happiness. I found this concept to be enthralling after witnessing the brutality of what a knife can do to a human being. Instill fear, inflict pain.

All in all, I was impressed with the entire production and one day hope to understand French just a little more so I can go back and watch this again.