On est sauvage comme on peut at Theatre National

A meal among friends. Lea plans it hoping for a pleasant evening. Thomas, her partner, is in a depression. It’s been months since he’s been to the office. So, the idea of greeting colleague Antoine, his wife Marie, and a third friend Sami, sounds like fun. But once the initial small talk is exhausted, the dinner veers towards the deeply frightening. Thomas makes a request both incongruous and terrible, plunging the get together into an abyss of folly.

On est sauvage comme on peut slips from realism to farce, and then from farce to tragedy. Borne through its desire to experiment with new liberating creative avenues, the Collectif Greta Koetz springs with glee from absurd humor to ferocity. As the improvisations succeed each other, it explores the tensions that can take over a meal and the power plays that engender them. Who has not felt the strange sensation of being trapped at a dinner table, forced to endure an endless evening colored by solitude and conventional social rules? From such a run-of-the-mill situation, Greta Koetz creates a theatrical laboratory. Steeped in inventiveness, sharp observation and reflections on what drives people in love and in friendship, the collective delivers a fascinating first show.