Tokyo hosts world premiere of screenstar Jean Reno’s own solo stage work

When news broke that the screen legend Jean Reno was going to present the world premiere of an autobiographical play in Japan, his legions of fans across the country were filled with both joy and pride.

Now aged 77, Reno first made his name known to the world playing the role of champion free diver Enzo Molinari in French director Luc Besson’s 1988 film “The Big Blue, before cementing his status in Besson’s “Léon: The Professional” (1994). Since then his popularity in Japan has shown no sign of waning, thanks to numerous subsequent hit films and his appearance as the futuristic cat-robot Doraemon in a television commercial (for Toyota). So now, there is no way Jstages readers in Japan should miss the chance to see this live performance before anyone else.

On one day in April, actor Jean Reno, director Ladislas Chollat and Pablo Lanty, who will provide piano accompaniment on stage, took to the podium at a press conference in Tokyo following their arrival in Japan for rehearsals, and revealed details of the upcoming one-man show titled “The Camel”.

(L->R) Chollat, Reno, Lanty

According to Chollat, when his friend Reno confided, “I really want to take on a challenge I’ve never attempted before. I want to speak in public about the text I’ve written, my life, and the path I’ve taken so far. I want to stand alone on stage,” he was deeply inspired by the sight of a man who has built such a distinguished career now taking on a solo show, and readily accepted his offer to be involved.

The reason why the French duo chose Japan as the setting for their creative endeavour was reportedly a desire to step away from the places they had grown accustomed to, and where they had built their careers, in order to return to their true selves and create.

The project for the world premiere of “The Camel” in Japan began to take shape after the conclusion of the plays “Son” and “Mother” that were directed by Chollat and staged at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre in 2024. It then began in earnest when a producer at that theatre received a photo of Reno and Chollat dining together — along with the message: “We’ve decided to create a play together now”.

While Reno’s live performance of eight songs is sure to attract considerable attention, the show is described as the life story of a man, packed with humour, laughter and tears. Following the Tokyo performances, a tour of 11 venues across Japan is scheduled, with plans for international stagings also on the horizon.

At the press conference, reporters fired questions one after another at Reno, Lanty and Chollat, who has previously worked at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre with renowned Japanese actors such as Isao Hashizume, Mayumi Wakamura, Kenichi Okamoto and Keito Okamoto. This time, as the production involves French actors and musicians, Chollat was asked about any differences in that regard.

Chollat: “Although the actors and musicians are French this time, the staff are Japanese. Based on my previous experience in Japan, I am delighted to be able to offer Jean the opportunity to create alongside this wonderful Japanese team.”

Reno: “I’ve always wanted to bring my life story to the stage. As an actor, I spend my days playing characters, but naturally, those characters are not me. So, first and foremost, I felt a desire to share my life story with my six children. This is because I myself never knew my own grandparents.

“Having first come to Japan 25 years ago, it is a country I love and have been closely connected to. So I wanted to tell everyone ‘who I am’ and ‘where I come from’. In other words, that the real me as a human being — as opposed to the actor you see on the poster — is, in a sense, much closer to you all. I want to show you the real me as a person.

“Then three years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Japan for a charity event, and that was when I decided to actually create this play here in Japan.”

You mentioned that you yourself don’t know your grandparents. Why is that?

“My Spanish father, who hated the Franco regime and went into exile, was a very taciturn man and rarely spoke to me about the past. So, by cornering my cousins and prising various details out of them, and by having them show me old photographs, I learnt that my grandparents used to look after the horses of nobility in Andalusia. That discovery was five or six years ago, and it has become one of the foundations for the creation of this production of ‘The Camel’”.

Why did you choose the title “The Camel”?

Reno: “As an actor, I’ve performed alongside all sorts of animals. So when I asked myself what kind of animal I am, or what animal lies within me, I felt quite clearly that it was a camel. I thought of a camel as an animal that carries people, luggage, and also suffering and loneliness, and walks slowly.”

How do you feel about the difficulty of playing yourself?

Reno: “The director, Ladislas, acts as a mirror for me. He advised me that I must not merely narrate the story, but become the character within it. As I wrote the text myself, I’m constantly tempted to revise it, but he told me that it’s more important to become the text as it stands. He is someone who takes me beyond the question of whether I am merely an actor or a person who has lived through what is being told there — he takes me to a place entirely different.”

Chollat then responded to his comment, saying: “Jean Reno plays ‘Jeans’ — plural. There’s the seven-year-old him, the teenager, the young man dreaming of acting in films, and in between, the present-day him commenting on all of these. Although this production is about recounting his life, it features comic-book-style imagery, music, songs, and a rich variety of episodes ranging from the past to his present-day words, making it a bit like a musical.”

Jean Reno

Wasn’t it difficult to choose material from such a long life?

Reno: “One of the symbols that inspired me to write this play is the balcony. When I was seven years old, in Casablanca, Morocco, I was watching people passing by from the balcony with my mother when she asked, ‘Do you think you could guess what the future holds for that person walking over there?’

“I remember observing the person intently, and that memory became the starting point for writing this play. That is why the opening of this work is with me at the age of seven. From there, I recount various adventures. I have endeavoured to tell honestly, without embellishment, the story of how I moved from Casablanca to Europe, then to America, and eventually out into the world. Whilst I capture my own joys and sorrows, I also capture the encounters I have had in life and the people I have met”.

“The Camel” also includes episodes from Japan reflecting the life of Reno, his love for the country, and his grateful feelings for the warm hospitality he has consistently received here over the years.

So, why not get a ticket (if you can) to experience this stage production, in which an actor of such worldwide renown expresses his life’s story through his own narration, song, and performance.