"La Tendresse", the play that deconstructs the masculine

• Until May 22, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord is hosting the show

  La Tendresse

  by Julie Berès.

• Combining theatre, dance, song, the piece features eight performers from different disciplines and backgrounds, for a choral reflection on masculinity.

• The relationship to the body, to success, sexuality, virility, violence… So many questions asked on stage, in this show that is as reflective as it is entertaining.

The room opens with a bang.

Barely time to get used to the darkness that the spotlights illuminate the stage of the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord from all sides where a gang of unleashed boys lands in fury.

The loudspeakers spit out the words of Jul's Marseille anthem: “In an organized gang, no one can channel us”.

All of them stride with enthusiasm the few meters that separate them from the spectators, come to mingle with the crowd and dance like possessed.

Then calm comes suddenly and the group falls apart.

A man stands out and modestly confides his doubts and complexes to the public,

begins.

Conceived and directed by Julie Berès, the play questions the question of masculinity, its construction, its contradictions and its toxicities.

For 1h45, eight actors and dancers question their education, their origins, their religions, their sexualities or their relationship to violence, with this red thread: what is it to be a man after #MeToo?

"Like a Polaroid"

After questioning the condition of women with

, a play featuring different women from immigrant backgrounds, Julie Berès looks at the other side.

"Knowing that the masculine is still considered the neutral, the norm, and the feminine the minority, I found it interesting to question this neutral, especially in the area of ​​its contradictions, its difficulties, its pains, its intimacy. … “, she explains to

.

Accompanied by the author Kevin Keiss and the authors Lisa Guez and Alice Zeniter, she then sets out to meet young men to collect their testimonies, their experiences and feed the show with these stories.

“I like to make a kind of reading grid of our time, like a Polaroid.

would not have been the same show 10 years ago for example, especially because this generation is marked by a movement as important as #MeToo”, she says.

On stage, they are eight to embody this generation, these men from different social classes, religions and varied cultures.

Aged between 25 and 41, they represent several masculinities and come from various disciplines: theatre, hip-hop dance but also classical dance.

"I made the choice not to take people who were particularly militant or committed to the issues of the equal struggle between men and women, but rather to represent young lambda men", also specifies the author.

Interpreters all the same aware of these subjects.

“I was in a period of questioning because my life was also changing, I was becoming a new father and my relationship with my wife was deepening over the years, explains Junior Bosila, dancer and actor.

This piece deals with a lot of subjects that are related to my life and that also allowed me to grow.

To prepare for it, they were also invited to take an interest in books or podcasts on the subject (

by Ivan Jablonka,

by Victoire Tuaillon), but also to contribute their own points of view.

"The role was not written in advance and we participated, it was quite exciting to think that it was going to be created as we went along", underlines the actor Romain Scheiner.

Models of masculinity

On stage, Romain Scheiner shines in particular during an epic scene where he alternately embodies with brio and frenzy different male roles that have marked the 7th art: Rocky, Rambo, Tony Montana... Characters who ooze ultra virility , give pride of place to violence and participate in shaping the image of the strong and conquering man.

"In the cinema but not only, where the model of the dominant male is extremely powerful, there is still this fantasy of the warrior who persists, of the hero and the overpowered man who manages to win despite all the difficulties", notes Julie Berès .

It is also through cultural representations that the piece invites us to question ourselves.

The great classics of the big screen but also those acclaimed by the younger generation.

Favorite music of the French, rap is present there,

to question certain sexist biases in the lyrics or in the clips.

"The idea was to talk about these models of virility today which cross several social classes", explains Julie Berès who is also interested in the competitive and performative aspects of hip-hop dance.

A discipline from which comes Junior Bosila (known as Bboy Junior), world champion of break-dance.

“It's a desired quality to always be strong in this dance, he analyzes.

Even if you beat yourself up you have to show that you didn't beat yourself up, you're going to be arrogant, virulent during the battles… I come from that school but over time I learned to bring a spirit critical.

In the play, he alternates comedy – a first role which he takes on with talent – ​​and spectacular dance scenes, combining power and gentleness.

“I'm trying to bring some emotion into something that might just be technical prowess,” he says.

"I didn't want to victimize them at all"

Tenderness

thus invites us to question the models that insidiously shape the masculine, but also the environments in which inequalities and violence persist.

On stage the performers remember bullying in the locker room, ordinary violence, homophobic insults in the schoolyard or a rigid and patriarchal family upbringing.

A consideration of a masculinity to live complex, without pouring into lament.

"I didn't want to victimize them at all because I don't think men are victims at all.

It was one of the pitfalls, ”recognizes Julie Berès.

The piece is thus riddled with humor and self-mockery: "We laugh a lot but they are also unbearable at times, it's also a catharsis".

Similarly, a long streak worn by Djamil Mohamed,

"The lines are shaking differently today and we are faced with a generation that no longer wants to be like their fathers, their grandfathers... They don't know exactly what they want to become but they are in full questioning about their relationship with social and financial success, with their fragility, their weaknesses, on their ability to connect with their vulnerabilities or to get out of a dominant sexuality…”, considers the author.

An ode to reflection and necessary deconstruction.

Podcast

News day: Masculinity questioned in "Balls on the table" by Victoire Tuaillon

Company

Study shows children associate power and masculinity as early as three years old

Performances of

at the Bouffes du Nord end on Saturday 22 May.

New dates are scheduled for next fall and then early 2023 across France.

In the meantime,

, the first painting in this diptych on the construction of identity, can be discovered at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris from May 31 to June 4, then from June 15 to 26 at the Théâtre du Rond-Point.

• Culture

• Theater

• Paris

• Dance

• Male

• Ile-de-France