In the first instalment of Playback FM, subtitled How the Media Taught Me to Speak, writer and performer Valentin Dilas explores the world of media language by compiling a series of audio clips: memorable interviews, on-air incidents, slips of the tongue, and sexist, racist or homophobic outbursts. He performs them with all the elasticity of his face and the magic of his thousand voices. The result is a mischievous, explosive dialogue between yesterday and today, using comedy to hold up a mirror to the absurdity of our contemporary media societies.
In the first instalment of Playback FM, subtitled How the Media Taught Me to Speak, writer and performer Valentin Dilas explores the world of media language by compiling a series of audio clips: memorable interviews, on-air incidents, slips of the tongue, and sexist, racist or homophobic outbursts. He performs them with all the elasticity of his face and the magic of his thousand voices. The result is a mischievous, explosive dialogue between yesterday and today, using comedy to hold up a mirror to the absurdity of our contemporary media societies.
BIOGRAPHY
> VALENTIN DILAS (FR)
After completing a theatre-focused baccalauréat in Grenoble in 2010, Valentin Dilas continued his training at the Conservatoire of Paris’s 5th arrondissement, before joining the GEIQ Compagnonnage-Théâtre programme in Lyon until 2015. He wrote and staged Les Cendres de Pasolini (2016), then performed in France Sauvage by Raphaël Defour and in an adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull in Mexico and Colombia. Based in Marseille since 2020, he has led theatre workshops, performed in Shakespeare and Racine adaptations, and discovered street arts and cabaret, which confirmed his love of burlesque, autofiction, and free, cathartic creation. He created the solo Playback FM (or How the Media Taught Me to Speak) in 2023, followed by Playback FM Vol. 2 (the media, you and me) in 2025 with two actors, and Alexandrie, Alexandrins (2025), a poetic score on the historical and imaginary rivalry between Corneille and Racine. He is now preparing the final part of the triptych with PB FM: The Musical (2028), centred on the history of the music hall. In 2026, he launches a new solo piece, Bons baisers de Valentina Di Lecce, a cynical drag cabaret.
DISTRIBUTION
Valentin Dilas (concept and performance), Anne-Sophie Derouet (external perspective), Estelle Lembert, Luc Michel, Clément Zakrewski (sound engineering), Manon Robil (distribution), Thomas Balouet (administration)
PRODUCTION
Productions pour que tu m’aimes (PQTM) (production), Cie les Enfants Taureaux (co-production), Le Nid de Poule – Lyon (support)
