“Sometimes, we have spontaneous love at first sight for works. Larissa Corriveau has changed the schedule of her commitments in order to be able to play in Listening of an emotion at Espace Go. “The text overwhelmed me on first reading,” explains the actress. And, perhaps because Marie-Laurence [Rancourt] does not come from the theater, therefore that she is not [formatée], broken to certain writing clichés, her text comes out a little, by its form, from what I am used to reading or seeing on stage. There is something almost outrageous in the language, it works a lot by one-upmanship, by repetitions. It’s very abundant. And it’s also quite a challenge! [Rires] But I love these dizziness. »
This is the first solo theatrical creation by Marie-Laurence Rancourt, who has written and directed several sound documentaries, in addition to having contributed to Aalaapi, show presented at the Salle Jean-Claude-Germain in 2019. The protagonist of her monologue is also a radio woman: in the studio where she is about to start her show, a host remembers her passionate affair with a man, whom she dissects. The author wanted to reconcile thought and affects in Listening to an emotion. “And I wanted to stage a woman who thinks. This one tells the love desire not in an anecdotal way, but by making it rather a “matter to think about, to reflect on a broader relationship to life”.
For Marie-Laurence Rancourt, desire, in its general sense, is what sets us in motion. She broadens this notion to a great desire to live intensely. “That’s what desire is, too: an experience of intensification, through love, among other things, of one’s own existence. We are looking for moments like that. We can’t just fit into the ordinary of days, in this kind of repetitive fog where we can get stuck in our habits. My character longs to get moving. And what he tells us through desire, which is an element of strangeness arising in his life through an encounter, is that there is room for the unexpected. »
And instead of hosting her radio show as usual, the protagonist reflects on the microphone, reproducing a bit of this experience of the unexpected herself. “In fact, we are placed in the same situation as spectators, by this woman’s ability to create something that she will improvise through language. We know very well that it is repeated, we are at the theater, says the author, but for the public, there is a mise en abyme of what she has experienced. »
Larissa Corriveau, for her part, notes the singularity of this description of desire. “Feminine desire, whether extramarital or not, is often presented in a very moral way. We feel the confinement of the female character in her bad conscience. Here, any moral or ethical question is ejected. We are really in the expression of freedom. And Marie-Laurence directs me a lot with the word “astonishment”, which often comes up in the rehearsal room. »
The director – a role she is occupying for the first time in the theater – explains: “You are absent from yourself a bit when you experience something intense, to think about it later. Hence the astonishment of the character, who was not in full consciousness. And even if she tells this story, I wanted her to remain in this kind of evocation of the absence to oneself. »
That’s what desire is too: an experience of intensification, through love, among other things, of one’s own existence. We are looking for moments like that. We can’t just fit into the ordinary of days, in this kind of repetitive fog where we can get stuck in our habits. My character longs to get moving. And what he tells us through desire, which is an element of strangeness arising in his life through an encounter, is that there is room for the unexpected.
Atypical presence
For Listening to an emotion, Marie-Laurence Rancourt was looking for a performer with charisma who “could carry a different, somewhat unusual presence — in the good sense of the term”. “I find that we need to see women who fit less into standards, perhaps even interpretation. Many then suggested Larissa Corriveau.
The actress is not surprised by this perception. “I’m starting to know that,” she laughs. I’ve been told that since I was in drama school. In fact, since I was little. I don’t know what it is exactly. It’s not for me to define. But so much the better. I’m very happy about it, because it leads me to work with people who have more marginal approaches. I am thinking of Marie Brassard, and of Denis Côté and Stéphane Lafleur in the cinema. They are somewhat left-field artists, who are always on the margins, because that’s their nature too. And Marie-Laurence has a side like that. »
“Larissa has real depth,” adds the latter. And that is not invented for a role. To carry a monologue like that, you need someone who is immediately magnetic, but also who can say these sentences and that we can believe in them. I think what makes a difference is that She also has a creative approach. It feels. He is someone who thinks, who has references [culturelles]. »
A “very enriching” exchange was therefore established between the author and the actress, who in turn praises Rancourt’s eloquence, her gift for expressing her ideas. The protagonist of the play is herself a lover of words. “This may be where Marie-Laurence held up a mirror to herself, without realizing it, says Larissa Corriveau with a smile. We really feel that the character is in love with language, he is always testing its limits, [se demander] to what extent we are able to put words on affects, on feelings. Can we express everything, can we reach each other just with words? There is always this discourse in the watermark of the text, which is very beautiful. »
The play builds a bridge between two spoken media: theater and radio. “I find its construction very interesting, adds the interpreter. It opens with the idea that starting a radio show is like starting a love affair. Then, we draw the two lines in parallel. »
Marie-Laurence Rancourt indeed sees many links between “the experience of the desire that one can have for someone” and a radio broadcast. “The studio is a very special place, because it’s a kind of summary of a relationship to the world. As in life where there is a pleasure in thinking that there will be the unexpected, things to improvise, there is an element of intuition on the radio, an openness to the unpredictable. It’s a bit like an adventure for me, opening a microphone. Being there, being heard and listened to and not necessarily knowing what we are going to do with that time. »
Without bathing in total strangeness, the show has an element of phantasmagoria, which distances it from strict realism. Very inspired by the vision of the theater of the renowned French author and director Joël Pommerat, the creator wants to explore in the coming years, with her company Magneto, a theater “where realism integrates the part of the dream without distinguishing it, where we sometimes wonder if we are in reality or in the imagination. For me, it is like one and the same thing”.
With Listening to an emotionLarissa Corriveau measures herself against her second solo (after the very “ underground » Emily Dickinson, in 2011). “It is sure that it is dizzying, it requires a lot of concentration, focus, abandonment and confidence. But I like to immerse myself in uncertain adventures. That’s what excites me the most. At worst, we crash and that’s it. But I’d rather jump in and take a hit than do flat things that work. “Like his character, the interpreter is thirsty for the unexpected.