When Anne-Élisabeth Bossé learned that the play People, places, things was about to be brought back to London, she took advantage of four days of respite in her schedule, between rehearsals and filming, to rush to the English capital to see a series. An opportunity also to converse with the British playwright Duncan Macmillan, whom she had contacted via Instagram.
This shows the commitment of this highly sought-after actress to the role. The successful author of the plays Trees And All things perfect — both created at La Licorne — paints an uncompromising portrait of Emma, a drug-addicted actress who loses her footing during a performance. Emma must therefore go to a detoxification center, against her will.
It’s a theme that resonates with Bossé. “I’m always drawn to pieces about addiction issues because I understand that,” she confides. “Usually, it gives me keys and I feel less alone.” The artist opens up about the subject with great honesty because she believes it can speak to many people. “I haven’t gone as far as Emma, I’ve never been to Narcotics Anonymous. But I like the night, I’ll always like it, and I have to be wary of that part of myself. In my early twenties, I found that I coped quite well with that and I did the party very strong.” Until she couldn’t anymore, and prioritized her career. “I was lucky, because it drained away quite organically in my life, because of work. I have such a strong passion, that it won out. But it’s never far away, it’s always there.”
Through its brilliant, biting heroine, People, places, things (relapse triggers) approaches this subject “in a caring way, which breaks down a lot of prejudices about people who use drugs,” she says. The team was also able to benefit from the contribution of two speakers from the field.
Written by Macmillan with the avowed aim of creating a great role worthy of the actresses, the play also demands a very demanding performance. “You have to go deep inside, really – you always have to, anyway, if you want to make it interesting. But these are places that are hard to revisit when you’ve flirted with addiction yourself. It’s a lot of energy, you have to physically act out withdrawal. It requires a lot of surrender and concentration. But also, it’s intelligent, well-written. And what she says, I agree with that!”
Particularly when Emma, subjected to the twelve-step therapeutic approach (“it’s the best system we know for getting out of an addiction, but it’s really imperfect,” notes Anne-Élisabeth Bossé), rebels against an approach based on mantras from religious movements, which suggests that she rely on a higher power.
For Olivier Arteau, who is directing the show at Duceppe, the choice of Bossé, a “luminous, humorous” actress, was obvious to embody this “very abrasive” protagonist who conveys negativity and a dark vision of the world. “There is a natural empathy for Anne-Élisabeth, so we can really work in all the dark and raw substance of this character, knowing that we will still like her actress.”
At first, Emma keeps evading group therapy, hiding behind roles in a context where she must reveal the truth. For the young artistic director of Trident, the play is also a question: “Can we really be authentic? I have a hard time believing it. I think that the real part of authenticity is in our paradoxes, not in what we decide to affirm. The real Emma is at the crossroads between what she says, what she thinks and the way she acts. And for me, the only way to be authentic is to experience a real connection with another.” It is also this human relationship that helps suffering people to get out of addiction. “And that’s a bit what theater tries to do.”
The text multiplies the parallels between art and addiction: “We experience a lot of emotions when Emma says that acting provides the same thing as alcohol and drugs, that it makes you alive,” says Bossé. Acting is a hard drug, it’s intense.” They have this search for intensity in common. Drug addicts, she says, are people, “perhaps, who have difficulty meeting themselves and facing their demons. Actors, we are in other people’s shoes, and we are often more comfortable there.”
In addition, as part of the therapy, Emma is led to rehearse with the other patients the conversations she wants to have later with her loved ones. “The greatest moments of sincerity are when Emma is in fiction,” says the actress. “She heals through fiction. That means that art saves us a little, in a way!” All of us, who are in need of the absolute, performers as well as spectators.
Vibration
For the actress, it is important that the play is not moralistic: it does not hide the pleasure associated with the high. To that euphoria that we seek to face, as she says with a laugh, the “big empty chaos” that is the world. “It’s a search for nirvana, and when you brush it with your fingertips, it’s an emotion that people who don’t consume don’t understand. Very balanced people don’t go as low, but they don’t go as high either.”
A buzz that the stage writing will reproduce through the vibration of the music, the lighting. “We will see the physical repercussions [du manque] on the character, but when we are in the buzz“You have to feel a strong exaltation,” says Arteau. “And the spectator can feel it, and even question his desire to go drinking after seeing the play.”
The celebrated creator, passionate about the rhythm of shows, found a gem there. “It’s rare that I stage a play that’s already written. But it offers so many permissions for staging. These are short scenes, but everything is linked. Creating a single breath, so that it’s exhilarating until the end, is truly exhilarating.”
Unmarked
Is the artistic world, with its pressure to perform, particularly conducive to these problems of dependency? Olivier Arteau believes that the danger comes from trivialization. “We want to accumulate as much experience as possible to be able to translate the world in a nuanced way.” His interpreter reminds us more generally that we live in a world where “alcohol is the social lubricant.” “But I still think that our jobs are a bit abnormal, in terms of pressure,” she adds. “Sometimes, we feel isolated. When you have a big career and a lot of success, it changes your relationship with the world a lot. I realize it a little more. Sometimes, I find the connection more difficult.”
The performance of the show takes place in a charged social context, with addiction issues having become more visible in the city centre. Both artists note that there is a lot of ignorance, a lot of prejudices about this complex problem. How can theatre enrich our view of this difficult reality?
Bossé offers an image: “I think we put the play together based on the drug addict in us. We start from our own experiences, and we are all addicted to something, as the post [du spectacle]. And I think the play shows the root of the problem: self-medication comes from being in a broken world. Then there are the mental health issues.”
Through emotion, Olivier Arteau answers for his part. “In the theater, we have access to a real part of life, that of Anne-Élisabeth in this case. In the sense that she is there in front of us living this character deep in her guts. It is a work of empathy that is necessary, theater, because we are so bombarded with images, information, that we end up desensitizing ourselves to a lot of issues.”