Un Radical barbu

Sometimes when I'm learning French I feel like I'm acting: exaggerating my accent, trying to articulate each word clearly, and even creating a new French persona to match the new language (although I often end up feeling more English than ever, a bizarre side-effect of living abroad). Given this, maybe I shouldn't have been that surprised that actually acting in French would be such a good method for learning languages, but when my French teacher announced that we would be spending a term working on a play to be performed in French in May, I wasn't convinced. A few weeks later, and I'm a complete convert to the idea. 'Un Radical barbu' - a little-known, short play by Boris Vian (a French writer, poet, singer and musician) was chosen for, guess what, its political theme (!), and follows the quick drunken demise of a political hopeful. Our production includes boxing, drinking, a hommage to Tintin in the form of two pairs of actors playing one role and repeating/splitting lines in the manner of Messieurs Dupont and Dupond, as well as unscripted mayhem midway to the music of Boris Vian. And you know what, despite the feeling that the audience might understand the play better than the actors, acting in a second (or in some cases) third language is fantastic fun. Even if I never have the chance to say "Et ensuite, c'etait pendant la guerre et il fallait bien se devrouiller pour gagner sa croute" or "C'est la tete haute que je me presente aujourd'hui devant vous pour me laver des accusations...." in 'real life' it beats role plays about buying petrol hands down.