Dans le couloir

With his reputation as the funniest tragic playwright of his generation, Jean-Claude Grumberg has been observing our lives for several decades now. His recent play *Dans le couloir* builds its dramatic tension around a closed door: yet another biting illustration of his penchant for laughter tinged with tears…

First staged in 2026, *Dans le couloir* paints a portrait of a couple in their eighties, brought together by their 53-year-old son, who has returned to live in the family home later in life. Holed up behind the door of his childhood bedroom, he no longer shows himself… Why is that? With this haunting presence-absence, the parents’ tongues are loosened and both resentment and love resurface… A dynamic duo, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and the multiple Molière Award-winning Christine Murillo bring this couple to life beautifully in a deliberate nod to the theatre of Samuel Beckett… Eating soup, making a sandwich, waiting for their son, pondering the meaning – or indeed the meaninglessness – of life: nothing is trivial… And on the eve of the dénouement, the image of the corridor soon takes on its full meaning. Take Jean-Claude Grumberg’s word for it: ‘nothing is funnier than misfortune’.