Our friend and novelist Alain Paraillous remembers here Michel Bouquet in Lot-et-Garonne: "The immense actor who has just left us at the age of 96 was not only the great actor time and time again on cinema screens, nor the undisputed star of Parisian theatres. Indeed, despite his largely confirmed career and his many solicitations, he never hesitated to make a provincial tour, which brought him to the least four times on the stages of Lot-et-Garonne.
Twice in Agen, twice in Villeneuve
First in Agen, at the beginning of the 90s, in "The King is dying", by Eugène Ionesco, his favorite play that he played over 800 times. The Ducourneau theater was packed, especially since many literature teachers had brought their students there, who were already familiar with his formidable cello voice, having heard him on LPs and before the arrival of the video, in the role of Governor Félix in "Polyeucte" by Corneille.
Then in 1997, still in Agen, it was in "Before Retirement" by the Swiss playwright Thomas Berhardt where he played the very ambiguous role of a former SS officer in a wheelchair.
In Villeneuve-sur-Lot, it was a first time at the end of the 1970s, in the hilarious comedy "M. Klebs et Rosalie" by René Obaldia, this other giant of the theater who just left us a few weeks ago . It was still the time when the performance of a play was interrupted by an intermission. This interlude over, the curtain rose, Bouquet returned to the stage, began to play again, but the regulars of Georges-Leygues had taken their time at the bar and returned to their places late and chatting. Michel Bouquet broke off, icy: "Ladies and gentlemen, I can't go on like this. Close the curtain. I'll be back when everyone is settled…" Although the play was hilarious, an icy silence fell in the room, after which the show resumed, and the laughter too.
Michel Bouquet returned to Villeneuve in October 2015 in one of his last great successes, "À tort et à raison", where he played the role of the great conductor Fürtwangler, to whom, the war ended, American officers blamed him for playing in front of the Führer. After the curtain fell, Michel Bouquet received a real ovation from the Villeneuve public.
Our great Agenais actor Michel Fau has absolute admiration for Michel Bouquet, to the point that he asked him in 2017, when this monument of the theater had passed the 90th birthday, to go back on stage and play the role of Orgon in "Le Tartuffe" by Molière. Rather funny situation where the one who played the role of Mrs. Pernelle, Orgon's mother, was old enough to be his daughter, or even his granddaughter!
