Cette page existe aussi en français. Voir en français

Esta página también está disponible en español. Ver en español

Back
The Witness

Photo : Emilie Dubrul

Oct 14 – Dec 30

The Witness

Forget predictable wedding speeches and generic toasts. This raw solo performance peels back the layers of a lifelong friendship, turning a celebratory reception into a gripping arena for long-buried secrets. Prepare for a performance that challenges you to confront the heavy line between standing by someone and becoming complicit in their shadows.

Théâtre Comédie Bastille (Paris 11th)

Book

About

The Théâtre Comédie Bastille presents the play Le témoin from October 3 to December 30, 2026. This one-man show follows Thomas, who is tasked with giving a wedding speech for his friend Vincent. What begins as a humorous toast slowly shifts into a tense revelation of a long-hidden truth, challenging the audience to reflect on memory and personal responsibility. The production is wheelchair accessible and offers discounted tickets for residents of the 11th arrondissement as well as those under 26 years old. This performance invites you to experience a deep emotional shift within the walls of this Paris venue.

It is the fourth time Thomas has been a best man at a wedding.
There are eternal seconds... and eternal witnesses.

But this time, during the anticipated speech, Thomas has written nothing down.
Everything is inside him. Everything is ready to burst out.

From middle school where he met Vincent to their first nights at the club, from high school graduation to vacations in Greece, Thomas remembers it all. He, the son of a laborer. Vincent, from a privileged background. Everything seemed to oppose them, and yet, the years have bonded them.

But beneath the memories, a buried event surfaces.

Little by little, the speech shifts.
The comedy cracks, the words slip, and a truth emerges.
A chilling truth, long kept silent, of which Thomas has been the witness.

Alone on stage, facing the guests as well as the audience, he turns this moment into a space of revelation.
What was supposed to be a celebration becomes a tipping point.

"The Witness" questions memory, silence, and responsibility.
What do we do with what we have seen?
At what point do we become complicit by staying silent?

Between humor, tension, and emotion, the show draws the viewer into a direct experience, where everyone is led to listen, feel... and take a stand.

Our take on this event

At the Théâtre Comédie Bastille, the story of Thomas unfolds as he stands as a witness for his longtime friend, Vincent. Exploring the bond between two men from vastly different social backgrounds, the narrative travels from their school days to their adulthood. However, during the wedding speech, the tone darkens as Thomas decides to share a buried, chilling truth he has witnessed. The performance moves beyond mere comedy to explore the complexities of silence, complicity, and the weight of our shared memories.

Shows are scheduled on Wednesdays from 19:00 to 20:10 and Saturdays from 15:00 to 16:10, between October 3 and December 30, 2026. Tickets are available in two categories, priced at 40 € and 30 €. Special reduced rates are offered to residents of the 11th arrondissement and visitors under the age of 26. The theater is fully wheelchair accessible, ensuring that everyone can attend this gripping theatrical experience.

19°C

Weather forecast

Partly cloudy

max +19 °Cmin +11 °C

Book

You might also like

  • The Weight of Water

    In the locker room of a swimming pool, two men cross paths for the first time. The setting is banal, but the encounter is unique.

    Oct 15 – Nov 7Metro Hôtel de Ville

  • The People We Love

    There is that magical moment of burgeoning love, the feeling that everything is possible. And one day, the phone rings.

    Oct 16 – Nov 28Metro Hôtel de Ville

  • The Villa...

    One summer, Paul catches a supposed vacationer in his family villa and soon begins to seduce him. Before the eyes of Alan, the story's narrator, the guardian of the place besieged by seagulls and brother to the imposter, a cruel role-playing game begins.

    Dec 7–17Metro Saint-Fargeau

  • What Was Silenced

    “Why don’t we ever say things?”. This is the very simple question, asked by my godson, which is at the origin of this text. We were discussing together the difficulties to which his young existence had exposed him. His father committed suicide in 2018 when he was 5 years old. Barely reaching the doors of adolescence, he had in turn expressed the desire to die.

    Mar 22 – Apr 3Metro Saint-Fargeau

  • Generation Mitterrand

    Marie-France, Luc, and Michel, friends since 1968 and reunited for Mitterrand's election in 1981, no longer share the same convictions today. With humor, they take turns embodying the former president to explore what has separated them.

    Mar 5Metro Hôtel de Ville

  • Artificial Lake

    Laura and Salomé are inseparable. On a Saturday night in the middle of summer, the two teenagers walk along the country road, at the edge of the forest, looking for a place to party. With only the fluorescent road signs as a guide, they look for their way and end up getting lost. Adrift in a world that sways, further and further into the night, into the darkness of their memories, they witness their own fall and the crumbling of their relationship.

    Oct 13–17Metro Saint-Fargeau

  • Hypothetical portrait of two serial killers

    Thierry P. and Jean-Thierry M. live flashily, love each other, and kill. In 1980s Paris, these two lovers, drug addicts and kings of the nightlife, murder elderly women and instill fear in the city, until prison, for one, and death, for the other, catch up with them.

    Feb 22 – Mar 6Metro Saint-Fargeau

  • 24 Place Beaumarchais

    How do you build yourself when everything around you seems to have already decided the place you will occupy? Brahim Koutari brings to the stage an intimate and political story, born from his journey as a child of Échirolles who became an actor. A unique trajectory, traversed by police checks, social labels, frustrated dreams, but also by the love of his own, his neighborhood, faith, mutual aid, humor, and the decisive discovery of theater.

    FreeOct 30 – Nov 7Metro Concorde

  • The Collapse of the Glaciers

    Summer 1980. Yann Lemée, a 28-year-old philosophy student and homosexual, knocks on the door of his idol, Marguerite Duras. He would never leave her again. Quickly, the writer attempts to shape the young man's life in her image, even wanting to rename him Yann Andréa. Thus begins a dizzying relationship that interweaves truth and fiction, intensity and destruction, which is still considered one of the great passions that marked the history of literature.

    Apr 19–30Metro Saint-Fargeau