THE CLOSET

In his plays, Francis Veber created the legendary comedy character, François Pignon, who is not very successful, is naive and a bit stupid, as we know him from Veber's most famous comedy, The Dinnere Game. In The Closet, Pignon is  quiet, downtrodden accountant in a condom company. And he is again the underdog – that is, initially, before the comedy carousel gets rolling. His wife has divorced him, his son won't talk to him, and he learns he's about to be fired from his job. He even decides to commit suicide because of all this. But then his new neighbour, a former corporate psychologist, shows up and talks him out of it. And he encourages him to try to keep his job by pretending to be a closet homosexual and, in these days of political correctness, to see if he will be treated differently at work. And indeed, the psychologist's trick succeeds. The boss is afraid to fire a gay, because someone might say he was fired because of his homosexuality! Pignon doesn't even have to play his new role very much; it is those around him who start treating him differently, just on the basis of the planted photo montages in which Pignon is shown in a gay club in daring poses. It is then that we watch the comedic transformation of all his work colleagues and their hypocrisy. And Pignon becomes indispensable to them. How much? Be surprised! And maybe there will be a gay pride!

The Closet is a modern social satire that highlights human prejudices in a clever and witty way and shows, through well-developed dialogue, how easily an almost invisible person can become a social star thanks to a sophisticated play.