Is there space to let anger speak? Can we legitimize revolt when there is injustice? Can it become wealth? As part of the Teen Theater Festival, Annick Lefebvre probes these questions, delves into the complexity of the notion of anger, a human emotion that is often repressed and condemned.
It was at the request of Talia Hallmona, director and general and artistic director of the Théâtre Fêlé – which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year – that Annick Lefebvre embarked on writing for young people. But this passage was not made without a little reluctance. Believing, she admits at the end of the line, that this theatre, apart from a few very fine exceptions, “was not directly aimed at children”, she did not want to dive into a theater that she found somewhat infantilizing. But she agrees to meet young people in workshops organized by Hallmona. At the end of the process, the director suggests that she write on the theme of “wealth that we carry within us”. “I said to myself: ‘If my main character is forced to rebuild himself, if something a little huge has happened to him in his life, inevitably, he will have to draw on the wealth that she carries within him. ” What allowed me to invent In crisis. »
Lefebvre thus tells the story of a slightly eco-anxiety young girl who, in a moment of nervousness, pushes her best friend, who falls and has a concussion. The parents of the latter “make the radical choice to prevent their daughter from seeing her again. It’s too much violence, when in reality it’s an accident, ”explains Lefebvre. An injustice that raises anger. “When we announce this decision to the girl in crisis […]she knocks on the brick wall and destroys her hands”, continues the author.
It seems that in childhood, unconsciously or not, our parents teach us a lot to silence our anger or not to show it publicly. So I said to myself that, perhaps because from childhood we never created space for ourselves to express this emotion, suddenly, when we become adults, it ends up exploding in an unhealthy way on the social networks. It was a bit like that, my train of thought.
Begun before the pandemic, the writing ofIn crisis continued during and after confinement, which had an impact on Lefebvre’s way of telling. She reflected on all the violence that is pouring out on social networks, on all this mischanneled hatred and wondered how we could have come to this. “It seems that in childhood, unconsciously or not, our parents teach us a lot to silence our anger or not to show it publicly. So I said to myself that, perhaps because from childhood we never created space for ourselves to express this emotion, suddenly, when we become adults, it ends up exploding in an unhealthy way on the social networks. It was a bit like that, my path of thought, ”she explains.
Trying to see what is acceptable, even finding, she will say, a way to celebrate anger “because it is all the same a human feeling that is not only negative” are part of this reflection inscribed in In crisis. “In the play, it comes from a feeling of friendship that is strong, from a rebellion against an injustice. There are angers that are legitimate, but we never legitimate them. That was kind of my goal. Let’s think collectively about how we can express this emotion, that it can be liberating and lead us further, that it can be constructive. Our revolt, it ends up being a wealth. Without that, we are also extinguished. »
find the right tone
It is not without difficulty that Annick Lefebvre devoted herself to this process of writing for this age group, this in-between which, she says, still has one foot in childhood and another in adolescence. “What I like to give as an example is my little brother who, at one point, was playing Lego, but had a condom in his wallet. I understood that in writing, it was difficult to touch that […] In fact, it is the level of maturity of the character that becomes problematic. For children or teenagers to be touched — in the same way that I like to reach adult audiences when I write for all audiences — it seems that I cannot go there with the same heart. With the same emotion. I have to find the zone that will make them feel things. I think that’s the difficulty, more than finding the right level of vocabulary. You have to find the right emotion. And the good tone too, ”she explains.
The right tone, the right angle to reach young people, to begin a reflection on our relationship to revolt, but above all on our ability to use the riches that are within us to move forward better, this is the path traveled by the author to lead well this room. “In general, I think that we need, for our children, for the adults and the elders that we will become, to really think about spaces where anger is allowed […] Lefebvre believes that it is necessary to revalorize this state in the intimate sphere, to listen, to accept the revolt of the other and to drop the blinders. “He who is shocked becomes the black sheep of the gang. We always have pejorative ways of talking about people who express themselves. Yet that’s what keeps the world going and, to a certain extent, keeps us alive. »