Press Clippings
« Delicate Balance »
She has a tone, Shelly De Vito. And if the production of 6×5 that the author subtitles “joy needs witnessing” is not boisterous, it is very well cultivated : here, with discretion, lights are dosed (Uri Rubinstein) and they are beautiful, delicate music is distilled (Quentin Sirjacq), the sets are sparse (James Porter).
Two women on a train. Two women in a space that could be a rest home, an insane asylum or a prison. Two women, one of whom could be the mother of the other, and yet is the author not speaking of something other than this relationship? The acting is the strongest. The encounter of two actresses, very well directed by Shelly De Vito. Two beautiful actresses, sensitive, mobile. A brief, delicate hour. And it exists.
Armelle Héliot, Le Figaro
« Unsettling »
Two women meet in a train. But is it a train? Or more a universe of confinement from which one, the younger, attempts to free the other? Nothing is truly clear. It deals with psychoanalysis, intimacy between women, a dialogue between generations…
Indeed, this show resembles nothing really that we know. There is an undeniable charm thanks to Shelly De Vito’s writing as it advances with light touches, and above all to the two actresses. Theatre is first and foremost this: living beings on a stage.
The kind of show that can throw off the unexpecting.
Jean-Luc Jeneer, FIGAROSCOPE
Between two opposites a communion is constructed around a shared malaise. The spleen. Shelly De Vito’s writing sketches the fine contours of their existence. Between past, present and future, reality and dream. There are almost no limits. The dialogues are both in vain and yet filled with a desire of the other, expectation with no tomorrow. In the staging, gesture carries almost as much weight as word…Without pretention, without judgment.
Georges Ghika, AVOIR-ALIRE
Two women in a train, two admirable actresses take you away with them. A voyage that will change you.
They don’t know each other. There’s no resemblance between them. One is young, almost adolescent, the other could be her mother, even grandmother. Hard to tell. For the latter, time stopped the day her daughter left…. The younger girl needs space, needs air. She didn’t ask to be put here, in this “home” to which the train brought them. Two completely opposite women, in age, in character…Chance brings them together in the confined space where they meet.
Shelly De Vito’s writing creates an atmosphere of tender sorrow between these two women as they slowly reveal their pain, and the reason for their presence in this “home”. [De Vito’s] words, poignant and dreamlike, are delivered by two excellent actresses who interpret diametrically opposed characters. The contrast is striking: one is gentle and calm, discretely taking possession of space, while the other clings to the walls, pushing space. Paradoxically, it is the younger, she who runs after the horizon, who imposes her presence, in the space that suffocates her. Each atom of the young actress’ body shakes and vibrates the air surrounding her.
The audience is carried away with the emotions of the two women. There is a tension which circulates in the theatre and we leave it stunned, as if in a bubble, filled with a strange sensation that we’d like to hold onto long after the curtain closes.
Marion Faure, LA FACTORY
This is a text of truth delivered by actresses whose interpretations complement the play’s finely detailed reality. Madness is present, but without excess. The desire to get better is present, as well… If the poetry of this play is sorrowful, it is clearly more melancholic than morbid… The tone is appropriate and the text speaks the suffering in the language of the deranged, “I’m obliged to be difficult, just to feel alive” “You’re not in your joy if you’re always outside looking at it.” We are witnessing the creation of affection. And listening to the dialogues, the audience is haunted by the question of whether at least one of the women can escape the prison of this gentle atmosphere.
The staging offers graphic discoveries but it is above all the poetry, melancholy and silence that create the impalpable charm of this play.
Pierre François