Contrasting autumn for Rébecca Déraspe, The duty meeting the day after the premiere of The night Kings, Shakespearean comedy which she signed the adaptation with Frédéric Bélanger. “It’s crazy: recently, I saw a chain of ice cream and I left in tears, devastated. And then I went to see Twelfth night, where the party is. It’s fabulous to be able to do two completely opposite shows, which are important to me in different ways. »
The playwright started writingThe ICES a few years ago, in reaction to the #MeToo movement, because she wanted to clarify her thoughts on the question of consent and the relationship to desire. “I’m not very good at debating ideas, I’m too emotional! My way of asking myself and thinking is to write theatre,” explains the author.
And the perspective of the play changed a little when she obtained a writing residency at the Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec, organized with the Center des Auteurs Dramatiques, which allowed her “extraordinary” access to the archives. . Déraspe notably read old love letters. “And I came across Marie Gérin-Lajoie’s speech at the creation of the Fédération nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste, one of the first feminist associations in Quebec, in 1907. She spoke of sorority, of education in our relationship to desire. I realized that we’ve been talking about this for years. » The ICES has become a play focused on female solidarity.
In this text also created in residence at La Licorne, Noémie accuses by text message two former friends of a rape committed when they were 16 years old. Kicked out by his spouse, Vincent returns to his native Bas-du-Fleuve, where he and the other aggressor will have to face this gesture buried in their past. The story also explores how denunciation creates an impact on those around you. Rébecca Déraspe wanted to address this question “with nuance” and show “real humans grappling with it. There are no monsters in the room. It was really important for me to see how these humans cope with such a big shock.
The author even gave a very feminist speech to Vincent, exposing the gap between speech and gestures. A contradiction of which we are often guilty. “Even me, if I examine my conscience, it is certain that at some point, I had to go beyond the limits in seductive relationships – not big ones! Sure that people exceeded mine, and that I let them because I was not aware of having to respect them. And it’s awful. »
Writing about the denunciation of a distant sexual assault — like many who came out in favor of #MeToo — also allowed for an interesting historical perspective. “The actions we took 25 years ago, which seemed correct to us, we no longer read them in the same way today. Several people working on the piece told me that it made them revisit a lot of the real-life stories they see now. [différemment], because the codes are no longer the same. And on the dramaturgical level, it is important: as a spectator, we can have more empathy [pour les personnages] as if they had taken these actions six months ago. »
An act of which these forty-somethings with a tidy life no longer recognize the faulty nature, the passage of time having transformed the perception of events. And also the lies they told themselves in order to “preserve themselves”. “That’s why the piece is called The ICES. At some point, it’s going to thaw out and they’re going to remember that she said stop. And from the moment they remember, they can no longer be the same people, ”says the playwright.
Education
If there is nothing monstrous about the aggressors in the play, it is also because Rébecca Déraspe believes that we bear a social responsibility in what they have been taught. She considers it essential to educate young people about sexual consent. And, more broadly, a scene between Vincent and his father highlights the son’s regret for never having had a conversation about the relationship between the sexes, desire, impulses and the vulnerability of the body. “I think the key is very much there, in the education of our sons, our daughters. We have a collective responsibility. What torch we [transmet] to our children? asks the creator of Daughters of St. Lawrence.
The playwright observes around her that things seem to be moving. A transformation “which will not make the relationship to desire any more boring. It’s just going to be important that consent is present on both sides, throughout the relationship. When I started having sex, I didn’t know it. When I didn’t feel like it anymore and said no, the guy continued, and that was it. This is why I find the movement that has been triggered to be extremely important. »
Without revealing the conclusion of the play, one of the ways “to stop the wheel of this lack of education in sexual relations and between men and women” passes through female solidarity, beyond family ties. A sorority that exists in reality? “I think it exists in ideology, but in practice, I’m not sure,” laments the author. Because we have acquired reflexes that are not easy to deconstruct. “Me, I realize that I still have a lot of reflexes that I would like to get rid of, but I am made up of that. There are very close friends who make gestures that are problematic, and it’s difficult to manage how I take a stand, how can I be in solidarity with the girl…”
Let’s say that as humans, we generally tend to put our personal relationships before principles. “That’s what I’m trying to say with The ICES : we must make the radical choice of solidarity. Afterwards, in concrete terms, it’s true that it’s a bit utopian. But I also do theater to dream! notes the prolific author.
Regarding this important social issue, the playwright sees her role as that of “reflecting with the spectator”, without claiming to answer these questions. Ideally, she hopes to “unfreeze something in one or a few people. Allow all kinds of awareness, in relation to one’s own solidarity or the actions one has taken. Of course, it’s extremely dangerous to address these issues, and I’m aware of that. But I also need — and it’s always my basic desire in my work — for people to be told a good story. That the spectators are moved, shaken. »
After Those who have evaporated — winner of the 2020 Michel-Tremblay Prize — Rébecca Déraspe signs a second “big” piece that goes deep into the emotional layers. The author of Gametes explains that she was more into irony when she started writing. “As I get older, I want to go to places that are true to me, that are fractured. And that when the viewer is there, there is something that changes. I assume the complexity of my own emotional machine. [Rires] It’s hard to wear everyday. But I think that in my texts, it gives a certain awareness of human complexity. I try to understand my contemporaries. Its not always easy ! And it’s more about emotion. My most precious tool is really the heart. »