#Play The Father

• Author: Florian Zeller (1979)
• Title: Le Père
• Published: 2012; 44 pages; 15 small scenes
• Trivia: Awarded the Molière Award 2014
• considered the highest French theater honor, the equivalent to the American Tony Award.
• Trivia: Nominated for Best Play Tony Award 2016

What are the key elements?
• Title: Le Père
• Playwright: Florian Zeller
• Setting: Anne’s apartment; hospital for Alzheimer patients
• Timeline: 6 months (my estimation)
• Characters: Anne (daughter)- André (father) – Pierre (Anne’s partner)
• Laura (carer) – L’Homme – La Femme
• Main conflict: André suffers from dementia cannot live alone. Decisions must be made.
• Resolution: Father is living with Anne until he can be placed in hospital.
• Climax: André cries to the nurse: “I feel as if I’m losing all my leaves, one by one.” Heartbreaking.

What type of play am I reading? – Tragic comedy
• Zeller maintains a delicate balance between tragedy and comedy.
• André is constantly searching for his watch. He has two of them.
• One is on his wrist the other is in his head.
• “Il est quelle heure?” he asks, time for apértief? medicine? dinner? to get out of my pajamas?
• Time is slipping away and he cannot grasp what is happening to him.
• Three times André realizes ‘something is not right’
• pg 25: Il y a quelque chose qui ne tourne pas rond.
• pg 25: Il se passe des choses étranges autour de nous. Tu n’as pas remarqué?
• pg 54: Il y a quelque chose qui ne s’emboîte pas.
• The tragedy is echoed in the theme… a painfully honest study of dementia.

What is the structure of the play?
•The play is only 44 pages and structured into 15 small scenes.
• The characters are developed quickly.
• Zeller takes you into the confused world of an elderly man, the world ‘Le Père’.
• He is unstable and constantly reorganizing his thoughts while struggling to retain information.

Conclusion:
1. Why was this play an amazing experience?
2. Zeller manages to let the reader ‘feel confusion’. (égarement)
3. He wants you to feel what it is like to be in ‘le labyrinthe de l’égarement du Père’.
4. I read the play 3 times.
5. During my first read I missed so many subtle changes in character’s dialogue!
6. When does the dialogue reflect reality and
7. …when does it slip into ‘André’s special world’ ?
8. Friendly chit chat between father and daughter
9. ….suddenly leads to events that appear to change with no apparent logic.
10. The most important thing I learned was to
11. …’highlight’ the stage directions before reading the scene.
12. That was the only way to notice ‘clues’
13. …Zeller gives the reader to make sense of Andre’s ramblings.
14. Excellent play. I read it in French…and it available in English!
15. The play won 2 Oscars 2021: best actor (A. Hopkins) and best adapted screenplay (Zeller, Hampton)