I present the immigrant as a dignified stage character.
An archetype.
Not a taxi driver, not a terrorist, but a man
who wants to drop anchor and settle down.

Deux is the follow-up to Un, a solo piece presented in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Sudbury, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Whitehorse… and Paris. In this autobiographical monologue, Mani, born in Teheran, describes exile and the many miles travelled, the distance impossible to fill as he questions his allegiance to the motherland and reflects on the feeling of belonging to his adopted country, the acceptance of a floating identity, of being caught in between, neither here nor there but cheerfully smiling.

For Deux, Mani invites Manu onstage with him, for some things remain unresolved. The dialogue with a native Quebecer, which constitutes the basic premise of the piece, allows him to shuffle the cards and to put them back into play. In this mirror text of Un and the reactions it generated, the artists weigh the outcome of that initial foray.

The story began three years ago when I tried to put into words an emptiness, a sense of something missing.

[…]

I’m not sure whether that solitude must be filled. I like that emptiness, that, uh, well... Bullshit!

In this hilarious and often insolent exchange, the two friends determine, each in his own fashion, what defines them in the eyes of the other. Questions without answers and comical clichés follow one after the other as they stake their position, risky but more than ever necessary.