“Alive” is a baroque and invigorating “zoological” melodrama. From the beginning of the play, the animals rebel against the categories in which humans confine them to designate and classify them. Under the eyes of Belle, a little girl, they demand the recognition of their singularity, even of their subjectivity. They attack Aristotle, Descartes or Malebranche. Bête, who replicates Belle, symbolizes the porosity of the border between man and animal. After a “trial” where everyone expresses their discontent, a joyful phonic chaos explodes. Bête reveals himself as the shaman who will lead each one to the interior of himself, through a journey to the heart of the Living.

Catherine Peillon