The English playwright that Espace Go introduces us to in the show which opens its season has never been performed here. debbie tucker green – who adopted lower case letters, in reference to the American afrofeminist bell hooks –, award-winning and committed author of 13 plays, has nevertheless acquired “capital importance” in British theater since the 2000s, according to Alexia Bürger, called to stage his text rope. steep.
The creator was fascinated by this “intelligent, rhythmic, very musically musical writing, where the form is as interesting as the subject”. A text devoid of didacticism, which uses “the psychological to talk about politics”. “Reflection on how to treat victims”, among other things, the story is set in a very near future, where the death penalty would have been reinstated. We see a black woman who suffered a violent crime confronted with legal proceedings: it is up to her to choose the sentence of her attacker.
Representation of a system, rope. steep demonstrates “that beyond the good will of humans”, this type of machine includes patterns, “oppressive” ways of doing things, believes the director. The text was written following the privatization of prisons in England, notes Stephie Mazunya, who plays the protagonist, Three. “I think the author wanted to push this logic further,” she says.
How does this dystopian situation challenge our present? “What I feel when I read the text are all the microaggressions that sometimes, as racialized women, we experience in society,” replies the actress. Through a system that is often set up without considering us. Racism or marginalization is believed to be done intentionally. But sometimes it’s due to a lack of thought. It’s a piece that allows you to put yourself in this character’s place, or at least to think. And then, we can draw parallels with any process in which people are marginalized. » Whether it is immigration mechanisms “which are dehumanizing” or a judicial system “often not designed” for victims of assault.
And for the graduate of the National Theater School in 2019, already noticed in Material thirsts, THE She-Wolves Or Nassarathe slightly anticipatory temporality of the story, creating a certain distance, ensures that we are more “capable of entering into fiction and questioning contemporary issues”.
Even if, in the universe of rope. steep, the justice system appears, on the surface, to want to put the victim at the center, “there is something quite hypocritical in the way it is done,” indicates Alexia Bürger. The dialogue does not really take place.” And under the guise of giving her power back, the traumatized woman instead finds herself having to carry a burden: the responsibility for punishing the criminal.
What I feel when I read the text are all the microaggressions that sometimes, as racialized women, we experience in society. Through a system that is often set up without considering us. Racism or marginalization is believed to be done intentionally. But sometimes it’s due to a lack of thought. Stephie Mazunya »
Responsibility turns out to be a recurring theme among the creator of the Hardings. In addition to the “fundamental” difference between this notion and guilt, the latter adds. And when it comes to relationships with racialized people, “often, I find that the dialogue does not move forward because of white guilt. We feel guilty, so we defend ourselves or we turn away. But responsibility and guilt are not the same thing. Responsibility means taking note of what is coming. Guilt is about what’s behind it, so it’s not something you have to carry. And the black women I know don’t ask me to wear that, on the contrary: “deal with your guilt, that’s not what serves the dialogue.” It doesn’t give them anything! »
Anger
The play also addresses the question of what we do with anger, says Alexia Bürger. This emotion, provoked in the victim by her attack, but also by the grueling legal procedure, is “at the center” of the play. “Stephie plays the character with enormous dignity,” opines the director.
The actress feared at the beginning of falling into the “cliché ofangry black woman “. “Sometimes, we don’t listen to these women, we quickly stereotype them,” notes Stephie Mazunya. But Three has the right to be angry. And there are so many nuances in the text. This character is very intelligent, so his way of experiencing his anger is expressed in different ways. And I think she wants to denounce this system. In her way of communicating with the two administrators, she tries to make them see to what extent this one is not for her. But without saying it openly. She’s looking for a little solidarity, and she can’t get it because these people are in a position where they no longer have access to their humanity. »
In rope. steep, we indeed witness the uncomfortable meeting between Three and two officials (played by Eve Landry and Patrice Dubois), responsible for recording his decision and applying procedures. Characters who “constantly walk on eggshells, full of good intentions, but who, at the same time, reproduce terrible things from the system in spite of themselves,” describes Bürger. This is where the director saw her own “entrance door” to address these words of an author of Jamaican origin. “I recognize myself, or I recognized my community in some of these aspects: we are full of benevolence, my God we want to be instead [de l’autre], but how far do we listen? »
The unease of this pair, their awkwardness – that of Deux (Patrice Dubois), especially – creates humor in the writing. A dimension that the director decided to support. “We work on this form of candor in kindness. And if I laugh, as a spectator, I am able to recognize myself more, because I am not saying to myself: who is this bad person who is not me? »
Sandals
This impression that they are walking on eggshells also inspired Alexia Bürger with the idea of “integrating a whole rhythm” into an already very rhythmic text: some of these silences are inhabited by tap dancing steps, performed by the two civil servants . Regulated movements which “represent the system as such. And at the same time, it becomes a form of sonic aggression for Trois, a tool of intimidation, seemingly nothing.”
Furthermore, the musical score signed by the rapper Backxwash (Ashanti Mutinta) evokes all the tension, the strangeness of this universe. Bürger praises its “super” design team. It was important for the director to surround herself with several black women, in order to nourish a dialogue and to embody the character of Trois, “for whom I would have lots of blind spots, obviously”. The tap choreographer, Majiza Philip, notably “fuelled the discussions”, given her own traumatic experience with local police officers.
Stephie Mazunya considered it very important not to be the only black woman at the table, “especially for this text. When there are several black people [sur un spectacle]it allows me to just do my job » (laughs). So, if there was, for example, a contextualization to be done, the playwright Alexandra Pierre will take care of it. His presence in the creative team relieves the interpreter of Trois from the burden of having to explain certain realities. A responsibility that “sometimes, the actor finds himself bearing”, when he plays in a production dealing with issues specific to racialized characters. “And I think that’s a lot to ask of one performer. »