Christiane Véricel...at the beginning

Cassandre : Some actors, important at different levels of the cultural landscape, especially in the theatre, passed, for more or less long times, by what we call Popular Education. For you, does it still mean something?
Christiane Véricel : It strengthened my liking for the theatre : to be confronted to the public, whatever the role. I knew that when I was very young. In the workshops Youth and Sports, we could meet Jean Dasté, Georges Moustaki, artists who came to have a training moment with some "beginners beginners" who did not know many things, but who had a so strong desire of theatre that we worked twelve or thirteen hours a day and at all roles, which is very formative. After, we can know what we want to do. For me, it was a supporting point to break away from it, I wanted to make something special with my theatre, being interested in the mix, foreign languages, the presence of actors of different cultures as I could see it for example with Peter Brook, or others, as Josette Baïz who started more or less at the same time as me, or with the musicians who have been mixed for a long time.

Which relation do you establish between this desire of mixing and the training...

I did not really had a training, but making training periods with a theatrical experience allows me to decide to make differently, I based on it to see what I wanted to do. The traditional theatre did not correspond with my desires.

So, on the basis of this "refusal", you created your own tool.

(She laughs.) Yes, I found the "pure" theatre, with texts, interesting, but images, sounds, paintings... what was around it, also was very interesting.

It was what was made during the realization training periods.

Yes, we knew sewing, we learnt joinery, to paint... The alliance of image and sound comes from that and from my sensitivity to painting, photography, and music. I did not want to lock me in something that would have been "dictated" by a text from the outside.

Since the beginning ?

Yes. I worked by trial and error, there were few examples of this kind of theatre ; Bob Wilson later, with some complexity and other means. Little by little, I constructed my particular artistic approach starting with simple questions : what do I want to say ? how to say it in the theatre ?

(...)

With the other artists, musicians, property men... is it also a shared approach or are they only artists with whom you work for a period of time ?

There is a companionship. When it is all right, I have no reason to change, I prefer deepening these relations to go further time after time. For them, I think it is a little bit special in their approach because some work elsewhere. I am very glad to feel that they are happy, if it was something that discredits them, they would not do it. It comforts me : when we work with youngs or children, it could be discredited. Sometimes I am not totally sure of myself and I find a big comfort with the participation of Michel Theuil, Louis Sclavis, and Bruno Corona, to see that they still work with me because they find it pleasant : I hear them laugh when they come to the rehearsals and it comforts me a lot.

It is a kind of tribe.

A tribe which is not closed, in which we always integrate new ones, for example the young actors that we meet during the project. According to the shape of the show, there are new technicians, for example Muriel Habrard for the video.

Why "Image Aiguë" ?

When I chose to make a theatre different from the theatre which was practiced a few years ago, I was interested in image and sound, theatrical images, photography, painting ; and "aiguë", because it is a rich word which refers to sound, but also to the sharp character of an image or a show that moves. It is difficult to explain the approach when we meet our partners. They are passionate by the work, but they do not know what it implies with the public and schools. There can be misunderstandings because this approach implies a lot of relays on the ground. The cultural structure works with other relays (town hall, scholar and social relays) and at one moment they can forget a part of the approach because they do not have a full vision of the story. It is a construction. The foundations must be clear and well done in order that the complex construction go until the end.

 Nicolas Roméas

Submitted by rédacteur on Fri, 03/10/2008 - 15:39

CARNET DE ROUTE : LY... up C’est où la Suède ?