“What is beautiful about our job is that it is not an ascent. Our career does not have a direction, it is made of cycles. Sometimes you are very called, sometimes more called, and it is as hard to gauge the one as the other! Sophie Cadieux is undoubtedly going through a period of plenty. We reach over the phone, between shoots and rehearsals, the brilliant designer who is stepping up this fall, notably as a result of schedules shaken up by the pandemic reorganization.
The actress is about to wear the solo Feminist for Men. Survival guide for all. Between his staging of Nassara by Carole Fréchette and her presence in the all-female cast of Queens, coming to TNM, you could say that its theatrical season puts women in the foreground. “It lives in me mainly from my residence at Espace Go,” she explains. I am from a generation that grew up with the achievements of a first wave of feminism, without being named in my education. I was told that I could do whatever I wanted, and I didn’t question myself too much about it. “
As I got older, and talking with women from another generation, continues Sophie Cadieux, “I realized that there were still a lot of inequalities, a lot of things also that I had internalized as going without saying. I have an interest of course in female writing, and from there stem projects that lead me to highlight them, sometimes with varying degrees of political commitment, but a hold on the world, much from the perspective of women. women, which I wish multiple. “
This is certainly the case with Feminist for men, which begins its initial performances at Usine C, where production will return in the fall of 2022 in addition to going on a provincial tour. A show that Sophie Cadieux describes as a “gesticulated conference, in the sense that we are somewhere between the“ TED Talk ”and the play. It is a speech where we go through the key themes of feminism by learning a lot of things, by laughing a lot too. “
The interpreter was seduced by this text which tackles many subjects in a “fun, but also very sensitive” way. “And what I also liked was walking around Quebec and reaching all kinds of audiences by dealing with this subject in an informative, intelligent and completely crazy way. A very fertile spectacle, she believes, to fuel conversations.
The actress first wants to talk about the title of the solo, which was originally created in 2019 by French actress and author Noémie de Lattre (the essay One in two men is a woman) and which is adapted here by the playwright Rébecca Deraspe. ” Feminist for Men, it works in France because it is still explained a little to these gentlemen, she specifies not without laughing, in a society which is much more macho than ours, with issues of social and domestic hierarchy that are more stigmatized than ‘in Quebec. We said to ourselves that we couldn’t talk about street harassment, or explain to Quebec men what feminism is, because we have the impression that we are no longer there. It is no longer women against men. We are in a relationship where things happen together, these discussions. So we adapted the text a lot. “
In her “colorful, frontal and above all very funny” way, Rébecca Déraspe (which Cadieux had edited Gametes) has adapted the text to the specificities and references here. (He also underlines the “traces still marked in society” left by the feminicide of Polytechnique.) And the added subtitle, Survival guide for all, reflects the very inclusive nature of the Quebec version. “This is not a lesson given to men. It is to take stock of all kinds of subjects that deal with women and that touch on our living together. If we talk about maternity, of course we are talking about paternity, mental burden and parental leave. “
Crossing the Atlantic, the monologue incorporates Quebec’s advances, but this wording remains necessary. “What’s interesting is that there is no morality. This is not the aim of the company at all. But the effect, I think, of talking about the status of women and feminism for an hour and a quarter, and dealing with the whole sum of things that make a woman who she is in society, is that we see that there are many subjects which are not completely settled. And we can see how many things have changed. “
Delicate subject
Does wearing this monologue announced as “irreverent and provocative” require daring? “Me, I find myself less courageous than Rebecca and Noémie. Because it’s a very delicate subject, feminism. And as soon as you name something, you have to make sure you don’t invalidate someone who has another feeling. That’s what’s dangerous, putting half of humanity in a box. The realities are so different. We are trying to paint a picture of all the possibilities and talk about the status of women without limiting it. There will surely be people who will not agree with [certains éléments], but that’s what’s beautiful, I think. We don’t want to invalidate anything. “
It is not a question of advocating feminism. Sophie Cadieux quotes a sentence added by Rébecca Déraspe: “It would be anti-productive to persist on our rights to claim rights. “It aims rather to try to” find a kind of exchange ground “, where one can succeed in talking about different subjects while drawing power (” to be empowered “)” While recognizing our differences “.
And the field is vast in this repertoire of injustices and this questioning of stereotypes linked to the female condition: sexuality, image pressure, obstetric violence, but also the size of the clitoris (“Wow! cool, that organ, ”says Cadieux, laughing). Or a segment on language, which grazes “THE” Académie française in passing. “We talk about the disappearance of feminine words throughout history. Before the French Academy, we used to say “poetess”, “captain”, “jugesse”. And, quietly, there has been a masculine standardization of the language which has made women lose a lot of social legitimacy. Several words which allowed them to present themselves according to the function they occupied have been erased from history, which we are reinstating today. “Author”, for example. “
Zumba
Described as a “cross between theater, stand-up and the manifesto ”, Feminist for Men thus differs from previous solos played by Sophie Cadieux (That girl and 4.48 Psychosis – which she will resume in Paris and Montreal next season). Through “a character who carries [sa] color but which is not [elle] », The interpreter creates a connivance with the public. The play “even has fun with the format stand-up Sometimes, with his questions posed to the audience.
Playfulness also tints the form of the show. Known for her bodywork, director Alix Dufresne installed Sophie Cadieux in a context of physical performance. “All the time that I deliver this conference, I do zumba because it tends to me to talk about feminism, says Sophie Cadieux with humor. It’s about staying in shape to continue defeating patriarchy. We therefore use the anger that some subjects may arouse to transform it into work-out. We demand a lot from women in their performance, even if they come to talk to us about feminism… ”