At a time when the World Cup is in full swing, in 2021 Julien Bouffier dived In the crowd : the round ball was invited onto the stage. An adaptation of the novel by Laurent Mauvignier, recounting the tragedy of the Heysel stadium. A misery where destinies change, loves die.
They come from France, Italy, England and elsewhere… They arrive, in fact, from all over Europe to attend the Champions League final which is being played in Brussels between Juventus Turin and Liverpool. Many young women and men, their spirits celebrating in May 1985, their eyes fixed on the crampons treading the grass. Until the fateful moment when the stand trembles and shudders: 450 injured, 39 dead. In the fever of Saturday evening, they are there, impatient and excited, in the crowdÂ: the French Jeff and Tonino, the English Geoff and his brothers, the Italian newlyweds Tana and Francesco…
Wearing the jerseys of their favorite teams, they juggle the ball on the stage of the Jean-Claude-Carrière theater in Montpellier, during the creation this Spring of the Comedians. The spotlights sparkle, the nets shake when the leather circle crosses the goal line. À At this time, the atmosphere is still partying, even if ultras and hooligans have already demonstrated what they are capable of in the streets of Brussels. Geoff allowed himself to be convinced, football is not his passion, he only accompanies his brothers and their friends: all fans, fans, tough guys who show fervor and support for their favorite club, almost hatred in their fists against the opposing supporters. Which will explode later: a tragedy, a human and sporting catastrophe. For a football match, everything for it!
In sensitive and gripping pages, Laurent Mauvignier had narrated the event, In the crowd tried to exorcise misfortune. A novel which Julien Bouffier skillfully seized to create a theatrical work. When Mauvignier and Bouffier committed to replaying the match, both winners, it was a promising result: for the contained emotion and the elegance of the former’s pen, for the look that was both realistic and poetry of the second… Thanks to the play of light, the dialogues in French-Italian-English which mix and mingle, to the video which scrutinizes bodies and gestures as closely as possible protagonists swept away in the movement of the deadly crowd. Who scream, moan, choke, call for help, do not want to let go of the hand of their beloved, Tana and Francesco who have come there for their honeymoon. He will not recover, pushed, crushed, trampled. For her, it will be a disillusioning tomorrow between suicide attempts and disgust with life. The party is over, sad days to come: shame for Geoff as he walks the streets of Liverpool alone, nights haunted by nightmares for Jeff and Tonino, lax and overwhelmed security forces, an unworthy and botched trial to follow.
Julien Bouffier réussissait son pari : go beyond the event to reflect on the fragility of life, probe hearts at a time when bodies are tilting in turmoil and terror. How to face the unimaginable, how to overcome it and recover from it? Rather incongruous questions about a sporting competition. Since then, between natural earthquakes, endless wars and fundamentalist killings, we have experienced much worse… Sports malpractices with racist and homophobic overtones in stadiums and on the pitches, from 1985 to 2026, football, still and always plagued by business and media issues? On stage as in real life, in the final outcome, the floor is given to the survivors of injustices and tragedies. Yonnel Liégeois
In the crowd, Laurent Mauvignier (Editions de Minuit432 p., 9€65)
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