"What can be said of a show and of an actor who, from Rome to New York, Naples to Amsterdam, Berlin to Barcelona, Vienna to Los Angeles, Reykjavik to Caracas, Montreal to Sao Paulo, have harvested a general chorus of enthusiastic praise ? "Huh?…" is the show of a lifetime and Mr. Ballon a character that Yves Lebreton has sewn himself into like a second skin and with which he has been touring since long-ago 1973" (Giuseppe Drago ,Oggi Sicilia, Napoli,14.03.98). "But the mystery of this show is that it does not feel the weight of time. It was born young and remains young. Each time it is presented again, it seems to rise from its own ashes, like the Arabian Phoenix which guards nothing less than the secret of eternal youth within its colours of the world's first dawn. Even for those people who have already seen it, the first impression they receive is that of extraordinary freshness. The reason ? Lebreton's inventive freshness: he never does anything 'routine'" (Giuseppe Grieco, Sipario, Roma, Nov/Dic. 1989). "The show has the range and individual maturity of a repertory that has been refined over the years" (La Repubblica, Rodolfo di Gianmarco, 01.12.89).
The international press has recognised it as "a historic play…a masterpiece of comic theatre" (Mario Sculatti, La Repubbmlica, Milano, 04.04.89), "an unforgettable theatrical feast" (Robert Lévesque, Le devoir, Monréal, 04.06.83), "upsetting and explosive, unbridled and devastating, insolent and provocative" (Paolo Emilio Poesio, La Nazione, Firenze, 28.05.78), "an extraordinary demonstration of theatre" (Renato Palazzi, Corriere della Sera, Milano, 13.06.75).
Yves Lebreton is "a virtuoso of the theatre" (Andre Jac Heijer, Handelsblad, Amsterdam, 10.03.77). He possesses "an agility that obeys the most impossible commands" (Paolo Emilio Poesio, La Nazione, Firenze, 28.05.78), " a constant creativity, a perfect technique and an outstanding ability to communicate with the public" (Renato Palazzi, Corriere della Sera, Milano, 13.06.75). "Craftsman of an original artistic grammar, he succeeds in uniting the expression of body, voice and clownish humour with a subtle sense of the absurd of Beckettian memory. More than mime, acrobat or actor, Yves Lebreton is above all a poet" (Magda Poli, Il Giornale, Milano, 25.05.86).
With the disarming and eternal innocence of a stranded extraterrestrial, Mr. Ballon alights from a celestial universe filled with bird song. A tender-hearted and happy vagabond, he ventures out to discover this strange planet called Earth. Submitting to the weight of gravity, struggling with the immobility of reality, he sparks an ironic-surreal "magnificent clowning" (Firenze, Paolo Emilio Poesio, La Nazione, 28.05.78) which he drags into his magical world of dreams and fantasy, of joy and enchantment, arousing ecstasy in spectators of all ages.
"But behind the naive surprise and sparkling laughter schines the emotion of existential melancholy: the art of clown" (S.F. Arbeiterzeitung, Wien, 22.01.77). "Yves Lebreton does not walk the tightrope of shallow amusement" (Paolo Emilio Poesio, La Nazione, Firenze, 28.05.78). "His surprising vitality" (Siro Ferrone, L'Unità, Firenze, 28.05.78), "the exuberance of his humour opens on the silence of thought" (Annelice Odry, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Köln, 14.02.78) : "the metaphysics of pure clownerty" (Ben Hurkmans, Et Parool, Amsterdam, 17.03.77).
"Without a doubt, Mr. Ballon belongs to the tradition of great comedians portrayed by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati" (Lia Lapini, Paese Sera, Firenze, 29.05.78). "His fluid, versatile, vibrant, colourful and luminous art develops in irreversible fashion. He advances on the path of pure theatrical joy, re-inventing the actor at each moment" (Ultima Hora, Sao Paulo, 19.05.77). "Lebreton always recreates with the mark of genius" (Carlo Brusati, Il Mondo, Milano, 03.07.75).
"An important date, not to be missed. How could it be otherwise if Mr. Ballon leaves you with a smile in your heart" (Ultima Hora, Sao Paulo, 19.05.77). Huh?...