Two weeks ago, we took part in the MULTID(L)INGUES FESTIVAL.
Schools are invited to play 10 minute sketches. We chose "21", a spoken-word poem written by Patrick Roche. This poem went viral in early 2014 and is about the family consequences of alcoholism.
It was difficult to get up on stage in front of other students but we tried to deliver our best performance...
A video of the last rehearsal :
The text we read as introduction :
Patrick
Roche, un nom qui ne vous dit sans doute pas grand-chose, mais pourtant
prédestiné puisque nous sommes élèves à l’Institut St-Joseph Sacré-Cœur de La
Roche. Ce jeune étudiant de l’université
de Princeton dans le New Jersey fit pourtant le buzz sur internet en 2014 grâce
à une vidéo intitulée « Twenty-One », 21. On y découvre Patrick Roche en train de
réciter un poème en slam lors d’un tournoi de poésie dans le Colorado. Le slam
est un moment d’échanges, de joutes verbales, de mise en jeu de la voix, des
mots et des émotions. A chacun ses mots et ses maux, sa voix et sa voie. Un texte original, pas de costume, pas
d’accessoire, pas de musique.
Patrick
Roche a grandi avec un père alcoolique.
Son poème relate, d’une manière très touchante, l’addiction de son père
et la souffrance devenue contagieuse pour son entourage. Cette terrible maladie
conduisit finalement son père à la mort.
Lors d’un tournoi de slam, les performances ne peuvent dépasser 3
minutes, mais nous sommes en première année d’anglais, nous ne parviendrons pas
à égaler Patrick Roche… Le poème est construit d’une manière très originale, notre
classe de 3eR vous la laisse découvrir… Ames
sensibles, préparez vos mouchoirs !
The full text of the poem here :
Patrick Roche, 21
21.
My father is run over by a car.
He is
passed out in the road with a blood alcohol content
4
times the legal limit.
I do
not cry.
Four
months later,
The
nurses lose his pulse,
And I
wonder whose life
Flashed
before his eyes.
Rewinding
VHS tapes
Old
home videos
20.
19. I
haven't brought a friend home in four years.
18.
My mother sips the word "divorce"
Her
mouth curls at the taste
Like
it burns going down.
17. I
start doing homework at Starbucks.
I
have more meaningful conversations with the barista
Than
with my family
16. I
wait for Christmas Eve.
My
brother and I usually exchange gifts to one another early
This
year, he
And
my father exchange blows.
My
mother doesn't go to mass.
15. I
come up with the theory that my father started drinking again
Because
maybe he found out I'm gay.
Like
if he could make everything else blurry,
Maybe
somehow I'd look straight.
15.
My mother cleans up his vomit in the middle of the night
And
cooks breakfast in the morning like she hasn't lost her appetite.
15. I
blame myself.
15.
My brother blames everyone else.
15.
My mother blames the dog.
15.
Super Bowl Sunday
My
father bursts through the door like an avalanche
Picking
up speed and debris as he falls
Banisters,
coffee tables, picture frames
Tumbling,
stumbling.
I
find his AA chip on the kitchen counter.
14.
My father's been sober for 10,
Maybe
11, years?
I
just know
We
don't even think about it anymore.
13.
12.
11.
Mom tells me Daddy's "meetings" are for AA.
She
asks if I know what that means.
I
don't.
I nod
anyway.
10.
My parents never drink wine at family gatherings.
All
my other aunts and uncles do.
I get
distracted by the TV and forget to ask why.
9.
8.
7.
6. I
want to be Spider-Man.
Or my
dad.
They're
kinda the same.
5.
4.
3. I
have a nightmare
The
recurring one about Ursula from The Little Mermaid
So I
get up
I
waddle toward Mommy and Daddy's room,
Blankie
in hand,
I
pause.
Daddy's
standing in his underwear
Silhouetted
by refrigerator light.
He
raises a bottle
To
his lips.
2.
1.
0.
When my mother was pregnant with me,
I
wonder if she hoped,
As so
many mothers do,
That
her baby boy would grow up to be
Just
like
His father
