On the stage, Pelletier and Espinoza can’t help but defend the Western values the driver has insulted. As Pelletier lands blows, he cries out, in dialog augmented by the playwrights, “This is for the feminists of Paris!…This one’s for Salman Rushdie!”

The gift of this French contemporary voice is the way it confronts the everyday, without pandering, without fear of the quotidian. This is ultimately how Blondel evades falseness.

In this meeting ground of living and dead, can anyone find comfort?

Tavares, with language uncorrupted by sentiment and attachment, is in search of the secret order of mankind.