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She had a visceral urge to understand the drama of migration. But, she was afraid to go to the "jungle" of Calais to apprehend the deplorable state of Europe. So, the French director Catherine Boskowitz crossed part of the continent by bus to arrive in Greece, the starting point of the European journey of many migrants. What she saw and lived with them inspired "The worst is not (always) certain", premiered at the Francophonies in Limoges, France. Interview.
RFI : The worst is not (always) certain speaks of the disarray of migrants, but also betrayals of values and internal contradictions provoked by the leaders in Europe, without forgetting a certain resistance that is organized. For you, the worst what does it look like ?
Catherine Boskowitz : The worst thing would be that it goes on like this now. That is to say, with an impossibility of rethinking the world as it is mutating, instead of rethinking it in optimism. The worst thing is pessimism, that is, this world that is completely closed in on itself, divided between the rich and the poor, between those who are there and those who are prevented from coming.
It's a play about migrants, written from what you saw and lived with them. How was the writing process ?
I went on a trip with another friend, director. We left in 2016, by bus, from Dijon to Thessaloniki, stopping in Zagreb, Sarajevo, Pristina, Kosovo, and Macedonia. When I was in France, I had great difficulty going to the "jungle" of Calais. So, I thought, I'm going to Greece. That's where people come in, particularly from the Middle East, a region I know well.
I stayed a few weeks, especially to work with a Greek citizen association. She accompanied people who arrived by tens or hundreds or thousands, with nothing, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq ... I also went to the camps. At the time, Europe had decided to dismantle spontaneous camps and refugees had to go to military-run camps. The borders were closing, one after the other.
When I came back to France, I did not really know what I was going to do. Especially, if I went to continue the theater. I was lucky. The director of the MC 93 Bobigny told me: "we must do something for the theater."
Here at the Festival des Francophonies, these questions of migration and exile in Europe, to be afraid and look for a future, are often addressed in pieces created by artists from elsewhere. What changes when a French director tells this story ?
Me, I was born in 1959. My father is naturalized French. I lived my youth in the 1960s and 1970s, with culture and awareness of what was the Second World War. And what has been the flow of refugees. Obviously, it matters. I had that awareness, I know what happened in Europe.
In your staging, you play Europe, dressed in a pantsuit and with horns on the head.
She looks like a beautiful cow [laughs] ... and terrible. A sort of minotauress who eats her children and the children of others, while she has everything to feed them.
There are also the characters of the Migrante, the Woman-Torch, the Tinkerbell. What is the role of women in this story ?
I did not think "woman", after, I'm a woman. And Europe is feminine. I wanted to stage Europe and Tinkerbell because there is a complexity. We can not really say: Europe is terrible, Europe is an entity ... Inside Europe, there are many entities and lots of [different] people. There are European parliamentarians who are extremely concerned about migration and for the opening of borders. But, I also know that this Europe is a machine.
You also play another role on stage, the European Woman.
It is the product of what the machine Europe "assumes". Because Europe assumes criticism and the fact that it is contradictory. But she assumes it to continue and to use it. It's a question of language. She dares to make people believe that we are totally helpless, for example, to resist the policy of closing the borders. This is not true. We are not helpless. Except that, by dint of making us believe, it becomes.
Where your piece becomes ingenious is when it introduces resistance into the European system through a repentant European Delegate for Migration Affairs.
The Tinkerbell is a bit of a tickle that does not stop telling Europe: "You say that the most archaic is behind us, but you're wrong. What will happen here is the disaster. So, try to rethink the world, our way of living, even within the European machine. "
Here, we are at the festival of Francophonies. What would be the ideal Francophonie for you ?
I have no idea, I never thought of that. My language is French. I often work with people from all over the world, many of whom are francophone. So, it's the Francophonie that has allowed me to think.
► The worst is not (always) certain . Text and direction: Catherine Boskowitz. Creation at the Festival of Francophonies, The Autumn Zebra, Limoges, France.
► To read also: Hassane Kouyaté: " The Francophonies in Limoges were a positive shock for me "
► To read also: Opening of the Francophonies: a "particip-active" show for a new era
► To read also: "Wanderings" to the Francophonies, with the Burkinabe dancer Auguste Ouedraogo