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A vital storyteller, he thrillingly illustrates Maurice Maeterlinck’s original play, as thoughtfully used surtitles made especially apparent.

Much of this flew by, especially if one tried to read the English surtitles.

“Writing Life” at least came with English surtitles for non-French speakers — a welcome development for the Avignon Festival.

The play, which I saw with English surtitles at Krakow’s Divine Comedy International Theatre Festival last month, is a great example of the limits — and buttons — that theater pushes, through the devices of hyperrealism.

Not that we hear him speak, of course; this being a solo act, whatever the father says is refracted through the son — and again through the surtitles, if you’re not a Francophone.