Description

Luca's body is found on the banks of the Arno. Murder, suicide, accident?<div> Murder, suicide, accident? The question remains suspended, like a held breath, and opens a space where certainties crack to give way to intimacy.</div><div><br></div><div> With A Boy from Italy, Mathieu Touzé delivers a sensitive and refined adaptation of Philippe Besson's novel, which won the Best Adaptation Award at the Rideau Rouge Festival. More than a crime story, the play is a plunge into the murky depths of desire, love, and loss. It's a theatre of restrained emotion, of silences heavy with meaning, where every word becomes a trace left by those who remain... and by the one who is no more.</div><div><br></div><div> On stage, in a deliberately minimalist setting, three voices answer one another. The voice of Luca, the deceased, who continues to speak, to love, to doubt, as if death hadn't interrupted the thread of his thoughts. The voice of Anna, his partner, seeking to understand what still eludes her. And the voice of Leo, the secret friend, bearer of a hidden love, never fully confessed. Together, they piece together the fragments of a story where the truth is never singular, but multiple, shifting, profoundly human.</div><div><br></div><div> Between introspection and poignant storytelling, the play delicately explores the contradictions of feelings, fragile romantic identities, and the shadows we all carry within. It's not so much Luca's death that is examined, but rather how the living try to survive his absence. How does one accept loss? How does one grieve for what one didn't dare to say, or fully experience?</div><div><br></div><div> The power of Philippe Besson's text, conveyed through a faithful and embodied adaptation, finds a powerful echo in the actors' performances. Mathieu Touzé's direction prioritizes listening, inner tension, and the flow of dialogue, leaving ample room for the spectator's imagination.</div><div><br></div><div> A Boy from Italy also marks the first stage production by Mathieu Touzé and his favorite actor, Yuming Hey, recently nominated for a Molière Award. Together, they seal an artistic collaboration that began more than ten years ago, based on a shared quest for accuracy, depth, and emotional truth.</div><div> A poignant and luminous show, which reminds us that love, even when silenced, even when lost, continues to speak to us long after the silence.</div>