He has a big voice and can’t stand noise. He shows us the earplugs still in his pocket, just in case. One of the symptoms of people with bipolar disorder. Warren Zavatta, 55, was diagnosed with this mood disorder in 2015. He had been suffering for a very long time, without the appropriate medication. Every Monday evening, on the stage of the Pépinière, near the Opéra Garnier (Paris, 2nd), the grandson of Achille Zavatta (1915-1993), the most famous clown of his generation, who debuted in the circus also recounts, between gags and confessions, its moments of glory, euphoria and its descent into hell. Up to prison, for repeated drunkenness on public roads or drug possession. That’s all behind him.
Tea or Perrier on the table. After the show, he bends his six feet to sit on the bench of a café next to his partner, Marie, who has come to support him from the area around Bordeaux where they live, and who watches over his balance . On the occasion of World Bipolar Disorder Day, Warren Zavatta and the woman who is essential to his stabilization process describe from the inside this pathology which affects 1 to 2.5% of the population. March 30 was chosen in homage to the birth of Vincent Van Gogh, considered bipolar even though the word did not exist at his time.