"Nature reclaims its rights over the perversity of men, which makes Shakespeare's texts very relevant": "Dix Pour Cent" star Thibault de Montalembert launched the Festival des Mots

It was in the intimate setting of the Hôtel Amour in Nice that we met Hélène Babu and Thibault de Montalembert this Friday, a few hours before their public reading in Peille as part of the Festival des Mots. For Hélène Babu, this visit to the Côte d'Azur feels like a homecoming...

The stage actress, who has also been seen in films, notably with Catherine Corsini, spent her childhood in the region and remembers, with shining eyes and a smile on her lips: "I was sunbathing on all the beaches, from Nice to Cannes, for years, and all that without sunscreen..."

Thibault de Montalembert, one of the faces of the series Dix pour cent and the recent series Franklin , his partner on stage and husband in the city, less familiar with the area, nevertheless readily acknowledges his attraction to the region: "I wouldn't see myself staying there all the time, but coming here for a vacation is pleasant and a change of scenery," he says.

A ten-year project

This time, it is neither to sunbathe nor for a moment of rest that the actor couple stops on the French Riviera. For the opening of the ball of this new edition of the Festival of Words, placed under the theme of nature, water and the ocean, the duo had selected two plays from the theater of William Shakespeare: Macbeth , preceded by an extract from Richard III . "It is a passage which takes place on the open sea and which deals with a nightmare, specifies Thibault de Montalembert , it makes a good introduction for Macbeth , which is a great nightmare."

And beyond the Festival of Words, this reading of the Shakespearean tragedy also appears to be the culmination of a long-term project for the duo. "It's an old story, Macbeth, it goes back more than ten years," acknowledges the former resident of the Comédie-Française from 1994 to 1996, "it's a play that I wanted to stage. I have a friend who took care of adapting it for two actors from Yves Bonnefoy's translation, but I couldn't find a production." An adaptation that they have already worked on together and which has already been the subject of public readings. "Life has meant that the project has been put on hold, but I recently proposed the idea to Charles Templon, who directed us both in A President Should Not Say That... , and he was delighted by the idea. So if all goes well, this is the last reading we will do of this project before it becomes a theatrical version," says Thibault de Montalembert, very happy to see this project come to fruition.

A simple question arises: how can two actors interpret the many characters in this tragedy?

Shakespeare in connection with nature

Answer: a daring stage score, Hélène Babu embodies all the female characters, including the second witch, whom she also dubbed in the film adaptation by Justin Kurzel (2015), and Thibault de Montalembert the male protagonists. "It often happens that he plays both characters in the same scene ," says Hélène Babu. "It's a great transformation challenge for an actor."

The theme of this edition of the Festival of Words, centered on nature and the ocean, finds a particular echo in their choice of texts. "The question didn't even arise for him [Shakespeare, editor's note] , nature is an integral part of human nature, it is not dissociated. Everything he writes is always linked to nature because it is an integral part of what we are," explains Hélène Babu. Thibault de Montalembert adds, declaring: "Nature is the great book that allows us to understand Man. We can practically say that the metaphor of nature is a metaphor for human history in its violence and its beauty. And very often, nature reclaims its rights over the perversity of men, which makes Shakespeare's texts very current and contemporary."

Festival of Words, until August 9. Next event: July 18 at 9 p.m., at Rouret, with Stéphane Guillon reading texts by Olivier de Kersauson.