Elie Semoun - Cactus - Tournée

Cactus at Radiant-Bellevue

We are delighted to welcome Elie Semoun with Cactus to Radiant-Bellevue, our stage designed precisely for artists who thrive on nuance, rhythm, and proximity with the audience. In our hall, the fine balance that defines this new show—prickly satire wrapped in tenderness—can fully bloom. The contours of Cactus invite a bare, nimble scenography: a microphone, a breath, and the sudden apparition of a character. Our team fine-tunes sound and light so that every inflection, every silence, and every sideways glance reaches the last row. Elie Semoun’s hallmark quick-change verve finds a natural echo here, where intimate sightlines amplify both the laughter and the flashes of vulnerability behind it. Expect a living gallery of temperaments, from the blustery to the fragile, stitched together by razor wordplay and the kind of timing that only a seasoned author-performer can muster. From our vantage point, Cactus is the right show at the right moment—sharply topical yet warmly human—and Radiant-Bellevue offers the closeness and clarity that let its details shine.

Elie Semoun’s creative momentum

Hosting Elie Semoun in Greater Lyon means embracing an artist whose current work thrives across several stages and screens. The route to Cactus runs through the renewed energy of Elie Semoun et ses Monstres, which refreshed his signature bestiary of everyday “monsters” with contemporary angles, and through the continuing popularity of Les petites annonces d’Elie, whose new batches of sketches and digital capsules have introduced younger audiences to his ironic tenderness. Beyond the stage, Semoun’s recent cinematic activity keeps expanding his universe: the Ducobu cycle—most notably Ducobu Président! and Ducobu passe au vert !—confirms his taste for comic archetypes with unexpected softness. From television rounds to festival appearances, he has been steadily sharpening themes that Cactus brings into focus: the dizzy etiquette of social networks, generational comedy, the micro-dramas of family life, and the way language itself can betray our obsessions. As programmers, we value this momentum. It means audiences at Radiant-Bellevue encounter an artist working in real time—testing, distilling, and rearranging ideas until the laugh lands with both sting and solace.

What will spectators experience with Cactus at Radiant-Bellevue? A performance that moves quickly yet leaves room for afterthought, where Semoun’s chameleon voice and elastic phrasing sculpt a set of vivid portraits. The title signals his taste for the piquant: affectionate jabs at our habits, prickly riffs on current mores, and sudden detours into vulnerability that make the laughter brighter. Fans of Les petites annonces d’Elie will recognize the artisan’s precision in character sketching, while admirers of Elie Semoun et ses Monstres will hear how these “monsters” evolve—less caricature for caricature’s sake, more the delicate revelation of a flaw we all share. Our venue’s acoustics support his dynamic range—from whispered aside to explosive punchline—so that changes of register feel effortless. Seating comfort, crisp sightlines, and a team drilled in live comedy ensure the immediacy of each beat, with a pace that breathes rather than blurs. Cactus arrives as part of a wider Tournée, but in our house, the show’s intimacy becomes its signature: laughter that travels the room like a spark and returns to the stage as energy, shaping a one-of-a-kind evening in Caluire-et-Cuire for the Lyon region.