Laurène Marx invests the Jean Vilar theater with two shows that embody her radical conception of theater: direct, political, and unfiltered speech in service of the unseen and socially marginalized.
If it’s writing, then never do it again to tell harmless stories. This is the approach that Laurène Marx has set for herself, honored this week at the Jean Vilar theater with two of her shows.
An artist who is non-binary trans, she creates work influenced by questions of identity, social domination, symbolic violence, and marginalization. For Laurène Marx, theater, which she approached late in life, is one of the few arts where one is “face to face with people.” “And there is one thing that is obvious to me, that when you have a voice, you have to make a mark on them for life because it’s a political platform,” she declares in the “Tracks” show on Arte.
At 39 years old, the artist also does not hide her critical view of the theater world: “What I have seen in the theater world, which I did not like, among colleagues, is this constant section of hoping that the message will emerge, and that it’s pointless to be clear, that we should not hand the work to the public. Well, sorry! The tone is set. With Laurène Marx, there is no nebulous theater, but a writing in direct connection with reality, rejecting classicism in favor of a raw and performative language where the body and speech are central.
For “Le soleil se lève aussi pour les cassos,” played on Wednesday, Laurène Marx ironically plays on the title of Hemingway’s novel to create a work of resistance against “far-right imaginaries.” Accompanied by two musicians, blending melancholy, rock, new wave, and rap, she uses her own texts and those of collaborators (Milène Tournier, Stéphanie Vovor, Kai Cheng Thom) to deliver an ode to marginality. From social assistance, lack of money – “the bummer without a penny” – drugs, to social workers: the goal is to free the voice of those who do not have it and bring it to the stage with flair.
The social radicality is also present in “Jag et Johnny,” presented on Thursday. Interpreted by Jessica Guilloud, known as Jag, this solo performance takes the form of a “sad stand-up,” in Laurène Marx’s words. “It’s the story of Jag and her dog Johnny, told by Jag to Laurène Marx.” The show explores a return to origins – that of a rural white working-class – and questions identity constructions. How do social affiliations shape trajectories and relationships? Once again, intimate speech – stories of the rural world, dysfunctional family cocoon, realities of the margin – becomes political. Two pieces that carry a certain urgency: to make the intimate a lever of protest.
“Le soleil se lève aussi pour les cassos,” Wednesday, April 15 at 8:00 p.m. (sold out, waiting list). “Jag et Johnny,” Thursday, April 16 at 8:00 p.m. Price: 5 to 20 euros. Jean Vilar theater, 155 rue de Bologne, Montpellier.
