In this one-man show starring Éric Belkheir and directed by Carole Mermoud, Momo opens his box of memories. He is transported back to the working-class, cosmopolitan Belleville of the 1970s – the Belleville of his childhood – and, above all, to the extraordinary bond he shared with Madame Rosa, his adoptive mother.
Éric Belkheir brings Madame Rosa back to life on stage with all the tenderness, humour and fragility of the character imagined by Romain Gary. Mr Hamil, Momo’s elderly mentor, also returns to inhabit these memories. And with them emerges an entire block of flats, an entire neighbourhood, a whole world of characters who are battered, generous, sometimes absurd, yet deeply alive.
For behind the humour and the memories lies, of course, what has always been the strength of *La Vie devant soi*: its immense humanity. It deals with old age, childhood, poverty, difference, abandonment, identity, loneliness and, above all, that incredibly simple yet oh-so-complicated thing: loving someone.
The decision to bring Momo back at the age of 60 is particularly astute. The character no longer merely recounts his childhood: he looks back on it from the other end of the journey. Memories then become a way of understanding what certain encounters have left within us, long after the passing of those who brought them about.
Éric Belkheir, moreover, has a personal connection to the novel. The actor explains that he recognised in Momo something of his own childhood and in Madame Rosa the memory of his grandmother, whom he loved deeply. This inevitably lends another dimension to this adaptation: *La Vie devant soi* is no longer just a text to be performed, but a story that one carries within oneself.
On stage, it’s a risky venture. Being alone means having to bring a whole world to life without being able to hide behind a large cast or spectacular theatrical staging. Here, it is precisely this intimacy that seems to lie at the heart of the project: a man, his memories, and all the benevolent ghosts who continue to live alongside him.
And then there remains this sentence, almost derisory in how obvious it seems: ‘One must love.’
Perhaps, in the end, that is all that *La Vie devant soi* is about. And perhaps that is also why, more than half a century after its publication, Momo and Madame Rosa still have so much to say to us.
*La Vie devant soi*, based on the novel by Romain Gary, adapted and performed by Éric Belkheir, directed by Carole Mermoud. From this Thursday, 17 September 2026, at 7.00 pm at the Théâtre Le Passage vers les Étoiles, 17 Cité Joly, Paris 11th arrondissement. Performances every Thursday at 7.00 pm until 15 October 2026.
