Paris (AFP)

"I left to tell the Ritals, I think I mostly told dad": as François Cavanna summed it up, Bruno Putzulu, also the son of an Italian immigrant, pays a moving tribute to his father by adapting for the first times on stage the autobiography of the founder of Charlie Hebdo.

Published in 1978, Cavanna's text resonates with the quest of migrants who are currently abandoning their country to flee war or economic difficulties, as did the fathers of the writer in the aftermath of the first and second world wars and the actor.

At the Théâtre de la Scène Parisienne and on tour, the former member of the Comédie-Française adapts and plays in the first person, accompanied by an accordionist, extracts from the text by François Cavanna, a colorful and moving account of the childhood of 'a small Italian emigrant, son of a mason and a French mother.

"Four years ago, my father died. Some time later, I was asked to read the + Ritals + at a conference on Italian immigration. Cavanna, it's my dad that I find in the text ", confides to AFP the actor.

"My mother is French, like Cavanna's mother. My father was Sardinian, with a lot in common but at different times. As with the Cavanna, we did not speak Italian at home, and even less racism, which was hidden, "says Bruno Putzulu.

For this adaptation, the actor wished to associate his own brother Mario with the staging.

"The humanity of the characters of the novel which is ours, made up of smallness and greatness, selfishness and generosity, will perhaps help us to recognize ourselves in the emigrants of today and perhaps to receive them with respect, "said the latter.

"The strength of Cavanna's writing is that it comes from the soul and the heart and reminds us, too, that racism can return. During Zidane's whim at Materazzi during the World Cup football 2006, opposing France to Italy, we heard not very pretty things against the Italians ", observes Bruno Putzulu.

With "Les Ritals", the actor indulges in a daily marathon: after playing "Twelve Men in anger" at 7:00 p.m. at the Théâtre Hébertot, he gets on his bike to reach the Théâtre de la Scène parisienne where the curtain rises at 9:00 p.m .: "just a little discipline and a good night's sleep for the memory!".

© 2020 AFP