Vincent Macaigne Idiot ! parce que nous aurions dû nous aimer

based on The Idiot by Fiodor Dostoïevski

Idiot ! is a show with much ranting and raving, heart-felt tears, a blend of the sublime and the festive, intimately-fought battles, dead and buried eras and undying hope. Vincent Macaigne first presented Idiot ! in 2009, an uproarious show, featuring nervous breakdowns and hardcore music, and based on fall-outs from Vincent Macaigne’s readings Fiodor Dostoïevski’s novel published, at a turning in point in his ideological convictions, in 1869. It gave us a taste of the full force of this young director, capable of banding together some of the most potent actors of their generation. Together they set about grasping, by the scruff of the neck, the story of this Prince Mychkine, a naive, debonair and altogether “inept” protagonist, who ideals are trampled upon by society, but who never “sinks into despair”. Since that time, the very same questions that Vincent Macaigne posed in his “stage book”, taken from The Idiot, have never ceased to rear their heads, indiscernibly or not, in subsequent and highly-acclaimed creations like Au moins j’aurais laissé un beau cadavre (2011), inspired by the myth of Hamlet . How far should we go in our fight for what we believe to be the Truth? From what point do our purest struggles   become malignant? Six years after the creation of this madcap, aesthetic manifesto-like show, Vincent Macaigne now serves up a second version. “It was definitely not about adapting it for today’s tastes, that would’ve been a bit sad”. But rather to give a second hearing to the young artist that he was at the time, and reaffirm, time and time again, the burning necessity for naivety in the face of cynical resignation.