Flouz, financial circus is a theatrical and musical show which questions the place of money in our society with, on stage, alongside actors, acrobats and musicians, inmates of the Meaux Penitentiary center. This creation is the culmination of writing workshops carried out over months in a hospital, in a school, in an emergency accommodation center, in a nursing home and in prison. For several years now, director Olivier Fredj and his company Paradoxe Palace have been running theater workshops at the Meaux penitentiary center, with a view to the social and professional reintegration of prisoners.
They left their cramped cell for the huge hall of the prison center gymnasium. Here, alongside professional acrobats, actors and musicians, Lounès and Farid can display their bodies and voices during the rehearsal. As its name suggests, flouz, the theme of the piece is money, and that inspires them.
” I was told that it was a flouz project, related to money, so that made us want to do it even more because we like money. So yes, that’s it, it’s the lack of money. We want to buy things, we want everything, right away. This is what pushes us to do stupid things. »
He has the gestures of an orchestra conductor. Olivier Fredj is a committed director. To write the show, he collected the words of people who are in hospital, in Ephad or in prison.
” Money was 80% of the reason people were imprisoned in the first place, and secondly a real question. That is to say that once we have left civil society here because they no longer have their civil rights in the nursing home and in the social emergency service for other reasons, the money has no no longer the same relationship as the one we have. And so, we have things to say about the values of life and the values of money which are particularly relevant and from which we can draw inspiration. »
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” For us, as prisoners, it is a privilege »
Lounès and his immense black eyes, Farid and his unruly beard share the same cell. Their surprise? the demands of the theater. ” You have to be involved, attentive to the movements, the movements, when you pass, the intonation, the way you recite, at what speed… It was not in our basic habits to do this kind of thing. »
Olivier Fredj, most often an opera director, likes to work with this audience. ” I think it’s the enthusiasm that touches me the most. The wonder of a show is that from the moment we form a troupe, whatever our origins, whatever our culture, our cultures, we have a common space. And in this common space, no one needs to forget who they are, but we have a space together. »
The show Flouz, financial circus will take place under the gilding of the Théâtre du Châtelet. What fascinates these young prisoners: “ For us, as prisoners, it is a privilege. It is one of the largest theaters in France, or prestigious, it seems to me. »And to their greatest pride, parents and friends will be seated on the velvet seats.