Adapted for the stage from a short story by Samuel Beckett, Le Depeupleur or “The Lost One” involves, according to director (metteur en scene) and co-adapter Alain Francon a passion for seeking that demands a search of everything. That both the search and its objects remain mystifying must be charged to Beckett and not to his talented interpreter Serge Merlin. I might have thought my problems understanding the thesis of and much of the argument of the play due to my imperfect understanding of French, but my friend who attended with me was equally mystified. (She is a retired professor of the university at Tours and a former Fulbright teacher at Wellesley College.) We both came to the conclusion that Merlin communicated a narrator dealing with anger and frustration with life itself, including sex. Maybe he was facing the end of his life. As Merlin entered the theater by the audience’s door, he seemed to be deep in his unconscious mind, confused, yet adamant about explaining a scheme that has led and still leads to his frustrations. As he approached the stage, he made it clear that he believed one must search and have a passion for searching. But for what? Meaning? (If so, didn’t he finally conclude he and all are lost?) What kind of meaning? Onstage Merlin worked with a chart on a wall and a large hole in the center of the stage. He kept repeating words that showed divisions (among people?) and attempts to get out of the circle. Did the scene represent some kind of known life or somewhere out of this world or even hell? What I did understand was the depth of feeling in Merlin’s performance. He was robed like either a prophet or an ancient leader or maybe a magician. An experienced interpreter of Beckett, of classic and modern authors and collaborator with Thomas Bernard, Merlin gained deserved appreciation from his selective (some might say “coterie”) audience.
