“I would like to extend the popular jubilation of the Olympic Games”
Three months after the end of the incredible period of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, what do you remember?
What remains for me is the surge of national unity and pride in being French aroused by the ceremonies and competitions. We have shown the world the face of a plural France, which, from its differences, brings out beauty and surprise. What touched the people who wrote to me or came to talk to me in the street was that they felt represented, whatever their age, their origins, their gender…
I remember a text from a mother who told me of the joy of her mixed-race daughter, during the opening of the Olympic Games, upon discovering Axelle Saint-Cirel, of Guadeloupean origin, performing The Marseillaise : “Look how pretty the lady who sings is and, what’s more, she has the same hair as me! » This is the message we wanted to send to everyone that evening: “You are part of this big us. »
Even if 86% of French people judged the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games to be a success, some were shocked by the “Festivity” sequence. They saw a caricature of the Last Supper there. Looking back, do you understand this emotion?
I could understand it if I had had that intention. However, this is not the case. The tableau dedicated to French fashion, dances and Parisian nightlife featured 50 artists on either side of a fashion show podium. A still image from a moving camera shot was misunderstood and exploited by certain personalities, rather on the extreme right. They compared the arrangement of the characters to Leonardo da Vinci’s fresco to conclude that it was a caricature. Now, in this above all unifying celebration, it seemed obvious to me that believers, particularly Christians, were welcomed. This is why an entire painting is dedicated to the splendor of Notre-Dame de Paris, the beating heart of the capital and emblem of France, through its prodigious resurrection thanks to the know-how of artisans and journeymen. And then, the ceremony ends with the last words of The hymn to love by Piaf: “God brings together those who love each other”…
How to maintain the wave of euphoria triggered then?
What stood out to us this summer was the extraordinary power of live performance to create society. In a way, we have reconnected with the ancient Greeks who met, within the city, in theaters with 20,000 seats to attend tragedies and comedies. After the Olympics, I asked myself: how can we perpetuate this popular jubilation? And, at the end of September, I put forward the idea of a big show, on the day of the national celebration of July 14, in Paris and in the regions.
What was the spark of your vocation?
Theater came into my life thanks to school! In sixth grade, the French teacher at my small college in Normandy asked me to read aloud an extract from Doctor in spite of himself, by Molière. It was a revelation: it was the first time I found a way to express myself in front of others. I then followed free training at high school, university… As soon as I finished my studies, I led workshops in the regions so that other young people had the same opportunity as me.
What role did your parents play in your journey?
My mother, a nurse, and my father, a printer at the Rouen faculty, passed on to me the spirit of public service. We didn’t go to the opera or the theater, just to the cinema once a year. But they always supported me. They were there for my first creations, for eighteen straight hours of Henry VI, Shakespeare’s trilogy, in Avignon, for Starmania or, of course, for the Olympics. I admire the simplicity with which they welcome the exceptional. Even if… (tears come to his eyes) The hate messages I received after the opening ceremony upset them and the end of the Olympics relieved them. I am happy that my family nucleus is far from culture, because it always reminds me of where I come from and the need to explain my job, as the staging arouses fantasies and, sometimes, misunderstandings.
Your grandmother also has her place in your trajectory…
In 2005, at the National Theater School of Brittany, I prepared my version of a play by Jean-Luc Lagarce, Photography . The first act focuses on a group of twenty-somethings and the second, which takes place decades later, on the only survivor of this group. For this key role, my director, Stanislas Nordey, suggested Isabelle Huppert. I immediately think of my grandmother Denise, whose freedom has always guided me. I suggested it to her and, without a second thought, she joined me in Rennes. During rehearsals, seeing her step onto the set for the first time and expose herself in all her fragility, I realized the gift that the scene represented. I learned later that she had dreamed of being an actress, before also becoming a nurse.
You have played rejected characters: Richard III, by Shakespeare, Atreus, in Thyeste by Seneca… You, who was a bullied teenager, did you find on stage a way to forge your identity?
In middle school, who I was posed a problem, every day, at every recess. Whereas, in the bubble of the drama class, my singularity was what we were looking for. Because a performer does not step into the skin of a character, but builds it from himself, from his voice, his body, his view of the world. Thanks to theater, I developed resilience in the face of adversity, I emancipated myself. When I highlight heroes who have suffered and commit monstrous acts, such as Atreus killing his nephews after being robbed by his brother Thyestes, it is to show that revenge is never an outcome.
You make a wide audience love the classics. How do you achieve this?
I advocate a theater of relationships. In the creation phase, I try to put myself in the place of a sort of supervisor: I am at the same time a child, a young woman of 35, an enthusiast who has already seen the play three times… In this optically, I draw from all artistic fields and allow myself all references, from opera to video games, including cinema. Then, at the time of the performance, I try to involve the audience, who, for example, in Richard III, ends up taking on the role of the people of London and cheering the tyrant like a rock star at a concert.
How do these references resonate with our times?
Seneca, Shakespeare, Starmania… Since Antiquity, these are the same stories that have put simple words to the most complex feelings: the thirst for recognition, the need for love, the fear of death… This is what allows these texts to cross centuries and to be instructions for existence, even alerts in the event of political dangers. In Starmaniathe billionaire Zéro Janvier sets a trap for society since he generates violence to stop it and get elected.
The Shakespeare marathon, Starmania, the Olympics: you take on impossible challenges. Do you, in some way, have faith?
I have faith in our humanity. But I also think that we are a humanity shaken by the continuous flow of current events, which leads us all to look for our way to be happy. My job is to say that we can be together. Simply, we must first look at ourselves, take care of each other and, then, we will live well. It’s not very far from religious values, but my medium is art.
After the Olympics, what do you dream of staging?
Recently, I reread Musset a lot, the romantic writer who powerfully describes a youth lost between two worlds: the one that has collapsed and the one that is slow to come. But Shakespeare remains, in my eyes, the most universal author… In any case, I have no “JOstalgia”, but I am not closing a parenthesis either. We experienced a moment of unity that changed us. My dream would be to extend it.
