Les Cocottes en sucettes 2nd draft

Les cocottes en Sucettes.

Venue : 30th Birthday of the « Théâtre du Crochetan » - Carnaval Madness

Songs : Pascal Rinaldi
Lyrics : Marc Goldberg
Staged Director : Lorenzo Malaguerra
Production : Denis Alber

Shows will run during 3 weeks from September the 4th until September 22nd,
Wednesday through Sunday -

For its 30th anniversary, the Théâtre du Crochetan is not shy and is offering itself an
Elizabethan theatre, built on the esplanade of the Jubilee Theatre. The wandering tower is
inspired by the Rose Elizabethan Theater, located on the outskirts of London and built in
1587. The replica of the tower, « La Tour vagabonde » was build in Switzerland by utopian
builders who thought to make it a travelling structure. The Tower has a capacity of 250
seats. The stage is in the center and the audience is spread over three floors in a circle
round the stage.

La compagnie ovale

Created in 2008 by Denis Alber and Pascal Rinaldi, the Compagnie de L'Ovale produces
shows where theatre, music, song and sometimes multimedia meet. To date, the Company
has created six shows.

Few words by the staged director - Lorenzo Malaguerra

With Les Cocottes en sucettes, we are in a show that pushes the unbridled joy of the stage
to its extreme. It is not surprising that our work is developing in Monthey's unique
environment, as the city is unusual in many ways. Industrial and industrious but where the
inhabitants are ready to celebrate whenever the opportunity arises. The piece is subtitled
"carnival madness", proof of this is that we want to connect the spirit of the Company with
the spirit of the place, whose passion for Carnival is well known.

The Story

the main director gets kicked out of his cabaret, a « coup d’état », instigated by Zizi
Souflette (Jean Lambert-Wild), a tyrannical character à la "Jack Nicholson in the Joker",
which wants to take possession of the city and wishes to transform Monthey into the
Capital of Cocottes ! By pretending to loyally elect his favorite dancers, the french actor
takes over the stage, and the public will have its share of sarcasm, accompanied by
scruffy or even dirty jokes, often burst below the belt.

The modest will go their way, the others laugh with a good heart. At Monthey, you don't
play with humour, which is a serious business not only at Carnival.

Les Cocottes en sucettes 2nd draft

Sunday September 8th 2019

It is raining, and the temperature went down to 5° degré. In front of the theater, six big
Lollipops lights, some benches and tables are set in a welcoming way for the audience to
hangout before the show, but tonight, as the rain is pouring down, the audience is in a
hurry to get in and get warm. The signal to get in the theater is when the musicians
dressed in a Carnival disguised costumes, wearing wigs, funny hats and funky glasses.
Suddenly, the sound of a marching band was approaching accompanied by a group of
dancers dressed in white angels dresses and dancing in an unbridled way, inviting the
audience to follow the band into the theater. It took a few minutes for the audience to find
their sits, either on the ground floor or on the balconies, awaiting impatiently for the show
to start while the music is still playing.

As the staged director (Lorenzo Malaguerra) makes its appearance, disguised as a

transvestite wearing a blonde wig, he is introducing the show invoking the hectic years of
the Belle Epoque, describing in a flowery way the atmosphere that reigned then in the
cabarets.

For Pascal Rinaldi's neophytes, whose songs with well elaborated and subtle texts are well
known for the most part, they have the pleasure this evening of discovering him as a
musician and as an actor, thus strengthening his artistic palette. In this configuration, he
moves from the accordion, playing musette waltz tunes, to the electric guitar, reminiscent
of harsher moments in industrial life, while humming engaged and daring but well
concocted texts, Pascal is at the Top of his Art. It is clear that Rinaldi had a great time
signing lyrics and music, he who had always dreamed of a Belle Epoque style cabaret
theatre. Throughout the show, music and dance will take us through different musical
genres, including waltz, samba, swing and rock. Also noteworthy is the virtuosity of the
highly acclaimed trumpeter Yannick Barman, whose improvisations enchanted the
listeners.

«Stamped Monthey » Denis Alber highlights the local talents who have just arrived on the
banks of the Vièze (river). Comedian Jean-Louis Droz is hilarious in his ornithologist
costume who found the best spot in Monthey to study "night birds" and the reproduction
specific to crazy carnival stories, that make Stéphane Coppey (president) laugh, totally
immersed in this crazy piece that fits so well with the spirit of the place.

Although for many people the show may seem grotesque, it is worth seeing.
Les Cocottes en sucettes 2nd draft

Works cited page

Les Cocottes En Sucettes. www.cocosusu.com. Accessed 11 sept. 2019.

Alber Denis. http://www.lambert-wild-malaguerra.com/fr/jlw-et-associes/denis-alber

Lambert-Wild Jean. https://www.theatre-contemporain.net/biographies/Jean-Lambert-wild/

Malaguerra Lorenzo. personal interview. 8 Sept. 2019.

The idea of finding an original and offbeat linker to create a cabaret show had been
bothering us for a while. Finally, with the wandering tower, which will be a perfect setting to
welcome "Les cocottes en sucettes," a festive and frivolous cabaret where the bourgeois
and the worker happily cling to each other with the flowers of the pavement and the half-
worldly society.

Rinaldi Pascal. https://www.pascalrinaldi.ch/bio

Radio télévision suisse. Vertigo, 27.08.2019, 16h30. https://www.rts.ch/play/radio/vertigo/

audio/linvite-lorenzo-malaguerra-les-cocottes-en-sucettes?id=10627038

Wicky Sarah. « Monthey: des Cocottes en sucettes bien acidulées ». Le Nouvelliste,

13.09.2019, page 12. https://www.lenouvelliste.ch/articles/lifestyle/sortir/monthey-des-
cocottes-en-sucettes-a-l-humour-acide-866380